


The Last Quiet Lullaby

by justgotowisharder



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Bottom Harry, Falling In Love, Fantasy, First Time, Fluff and Angst, Forbidden Love, Human Louis, Innocent Harry, M/M, Merman Harry, Protective Louis, Riding, Subspace, True Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-18
Updated: 2016-04-18
Packaged: 2018-06-02 22:15:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6584713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justgotowisharder/pseuds/justgotowisharder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louis knew the stories. He knew what Harry was. He knew he was falling for him.<br/>Louis had answers, but he wasn't ready to make the questions.</p><p>(Or the one where Louis is the swimmer with no path and Harry is the merman who always sings to him, but never lures him to dead)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Quiet Lullaby

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Okay, first of all, I'm so sorry for being late. My beta disappeared which was a nightmare because this work is really long and needed a proofreader. Okay, this is long. Like, really long. I wasn’t expecting to write something so lengthy, but I got carried away because mermaid!Harry is such a wonderful topic to write about. Also, I’m a huge fan of fantasy stories so I couldn’t be any more excited when I received the prompts. 
> 
> Second, due to my lack of beta, I'm sorry for all the grammar mistakes you can find here, they're all mine. I'm so, so sorry I couldn't polish it, why do betas always abandon me? (I'm so lame, I know).
> 
> Third, boat, I LOVED this prompt. I really wanted to write something merman!harry related but never got the chance to start, you gave me that chance. I really hope you like this, it's a story filled with fantasy (which I love) and with quite an ending. Thanks for giving me this prompt, I love you for that and I really hope you like this story, or at least enjoy it as you read.
> 
> Last but not least, thank you to everyone who reads. I love you! xx

 ✧

_Count to ten._

One, two, three…

_Count to ten, you need to hold on there._

Four, five, six…

_Count to ten before opening your eyes, you won’t be ready for your new body._

Seven, eight, nine…

_Count to ten._

Ten.

_Goodbye, Harry. Welcome to the human world._

✧

 

**_I. The Swimmer_ **

He wasn’t singing.

For the very first time since Louis moved out to Brighton, the voice that had enchanted and comforted his soul every time he needed someone to make it better wasn’t there.

There was no voice.

As Louis opened the box to check how many he had left, he realised he had one last cigarette left in the packet. Sure, he smoked more than he should have. Way more.

Fuck it, Louis thought as he threw the cigarette to the sand. This wasn’t normal at all. He was a social smoker, not an obsessive one, but somehow he couldn’t find a fucking way to stop. He needed his voice, but he wasn’t singing, the nicotine worked to reduce the frantic anxiety that was killing him inside.

Maybe he was making a big mistake, he thought as he glanced at this phone, remembering the training where he was supposed to be.

“I’m such a lame ass,” he said to no one in particular.

Son of a simple fisherman, Louis Tomlinson had developed great abilities to swim in his earliest years, making him a great swimmer. As far as he could remember, he had always been his family’s highest promise. He was the gifted one, he was making it big, and his family wanted him to take part of the Olympics.

So he did.

He was supposed to make life for swimming when he couldn’t even say if he truly loved the water. He didn’t even know what he was going to do next week. He did it, anyway. He accepted the idea of his mother, so they found him a trainer and signed up for a competition.

Yet he didn’t want to.

His phone started ringing on the dashboard; Louis looked at the caller ID. Sighing, he slowed down the speed and picked the call.

“Louis Tomlinson, where are ya’, mate?”

Niall Horan, his trainer, sounded more excited than the swimmer did; Louis noticed when he picked up.

“Hum… Went to buy some cigarettes,” Lies. He was there for him. For his voice. “Just need a fag.”

He wanted freedom, a freedom his place in the family never gave him.

“I knew it,” Niall answered and Louis could feel him rolling his eyes. “You should stop that vice, Lou, it isn’t good for your health. You’re in for the Olympics, mate, not a high school competition.”

“I know, but it’s hard to abandon it,” Louis growled into the phone.

“Remind me why you left you mum’s and you’re living at your dad’s.”

Niall pushed the right button, Louis thought. “To be the best swimmer.”

“You did. And you are.”

Niall laughed without apparent reason.

Right, Louis told himself. I’m the big promise. Sure.

Louis broke into a forced, cold laughter that didn’t convince Niall much. He stayed silent, anyway, considering that it was better to say nothing than to piss Louis off.

“I’m waiting for you, Lou.”

Louis nodded as Niall hung up. He threw the cellphone to the sand and reached for his cigarette box, taking another, his seventh one. He didn’t care, he didn’t pay attention to the small voice inside his head that told him how much he was hurting himself.

He had a self-destructive personality, okay, he knew this. It was too late to change it.

He lit up his cigarette as his eyes stared at the horizon. Moving out to Brighton hadn’t been a bad decision, Louis thought. His father had better chances of finding work in the harbor here than in their local hometown, Doncaster.

He knew which one was the calmest shore in the zone, which is why he found himself sat in the sand, waiting for him. For his voice.

Crushed, he finished his cigarette, threw it to the ground and put it out with the tip of his Vans. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as he recalled the many reasons why this was a good idea.

“Please,” he whispered with his eyes closed. “Sing to me, little Thing.”

Louis let go of a slow, solemn sigh. He took a deep breath, feeling the way the pure air of the beach filled his lungs, and opened his eyes. He walked towards the seashore and take off his shoes, plunking his feet on the cold seawater.

He needed him.

“Are you there?” he asked aloud.

Nobody answered.

Technically, he had not seen him once, but he knew he was a boy, a boy with the most endearing voice he had ever heard.

He let go of a deep sigh, as he tried to bury his secret wishes inside his heart. He couldn’t run away, he had to be rational about it. Running away sounds nice if you’re in a novel or a movie, not real life.

Louis closed his eyes and collapsed on the wet sand, trying to find inner peace. He remained a long time in silence, with the sound of the seashore caressing the sand and his body.

Then, he started to get curious. Okay, yes, curious wasn’t the word. He was scared.

“Thing? Are you there?”

The young swimmer opened his eyes, sitting up on the sand. He knew the answers, but he was very good at pretending so he never asked the questions. That why he never looked further into the voice.

But right now, he had a bad feeling.

Louis looked around, trying to spot the creature that owned that voice. Yet he found no one. Everything was oddly quiet.

It was well known how calm things could be in the sea,  just as wild some days, too; but as Louis Tomlinson stood up, he found the calm strangely unusual.

There weren’t any sounds except the small waves breaking against the shore.

The sea was as calm as a midnight sky, despite it being light out.

Things were quiet.

A strange kind of quiet.

(He knew the stories)

“Hello? Hey, I… Are you there? The one who sings?” Louis asked aloud, hesitant. “Would like to know you. Can I— see you?”

The sound of the sea was the only answer he got. There was no voice anymore. Louis knew something was wrong.

For the very first time, he wanted to ask the questions.

 

//

 

Louis came back to the beach a week later. In theory, he was with his father to go fishing, but deep inside he knew his eyes couldn’t stop glancing around in search of something, or well, someone.

Since the first time he had heard it, months ago when he moved out with his father, Louis had persuaded himself the voice had been his own imagination tricking him into believing there was some kind of savior that helped him to go through his days.

But as the son of a fisherman, Louis knew the stories.

He asked his father if he could stay at the shore that day, putting up an excuse about feeling a bit dizzy. Mark considered it and decided that it wasn’t a good idea for him to be out on the water so he let his son drive away by the beach as he took the boat and sailed away.

Louis knew where he was going.

The part of the beach where he always heard the voice was the loneliest of them all, away from the noise and the city; a part full of rocks and virgin nature that people didn’t bother on exploring because it wasn’t appealing to the tourists.

Louis walked around for what seemed to be hours, trying to find the voice again, until he saw it.

He saw the long pale figure lying on the sand, surrounded by dirt and mud. It was the strangest view ever.

Someone was lying on the sand, in the middle of the loneliness of the beach. Someone who was completely naked. Someone who seemed to be… dead.

Louis’ breath was caught up in this throat. He didn’t realize all the sounds around him had abruptly stopped. The clouds in the sky had covered the sun, giving the atmosphere a gloomy light that was not there a minute before.

Louis stepped forward, the boy didn’t move.

What if he was dead? What if Louis had found a dead body?

He froze in his place as he considered this. If it was a dead body, Louis should call the police right now if he didn’t want to face legal issues later. Who knew who had killed the boy and who knew why?

Deep inside, he knew this wasn’t a dead body. Yet he didn’t ask the questions yet.

The boy was actually breathing. His chest moved up and down in a calm rhythm of inhales and exhales.

This revelation pushed Louis to approach him, eyes starved to see more. The boy’s pale and bright skin contrasted against the brown of the sand. As his eyes ran over the long, slim body lying in front of him, Louis realized there wasn’t even a scratch on that soft skin.

But it had something, something that made it look so soft that it tempted Louis, making him want to feel that skin against his fingertips.

As he gulped, Louis’ eyes focused on the boy’s nakedness. Wherever this boy came from, he cut a great figure; long, fit and well built in the right places. However, his body wasn’t the greatest thing— His face was.

His face had a child-like quality as well as some angelic aura that made Louis itchy. Those lips, a pair of lips as rosy as a flower and as soft as a petal… Those lips weren’t human.

This boy couldn’t be human. He seemed to be made of silk, somehow, pale as the snow but not any less attractive for it.

“Mate.”

Louis knelt down in front of the naked boy, afraid to touch him. He used an encouraging, soft tone to talk to him; but he got no answer.

“Kiddo, hey, wake up.”

The boy lying on the sand parted his lips and let out a slow, painful whimper. It flamed Louis’ insides. He felt as if a train had hit him.

Louis’ senses were captivated, hypnotized even,  with the beauty and delicacy of the creature in front of him. His eyes wanted to look away, but they couldn’t. Everything about him, every inch of this naked boy claimed full attention; attention Louis didn’t know how to decline.

“Please, for the love of fucking God, wake up,” he growled in a choked voice. He wasn’t expecting to sound so distressed, but somehow he did. He moved his hands towards the boy’s body, but he didn’t touch him right away.

The mere way the boy was lying there was enchanting Louis in ways he had not experienced before, he felt like everything could go downhill if he touched him. Yet it felt like a need, like a desperate need, as vital as breathing.

He knew who was this boy.

He carefully rested a hand on one of the boy’s biceps, feeling the way his fingers made contact with that silky skin. It was cold, but somehow warm. It was smooth, addictive. It made Louis’ guts twist with a burst of emotions he couldn’t label or even put in words.

An idea overcame his mind immediately. A risky, reckless idea.

“Little Thing.”

He tightened the grip around the boy’s bare bicep, trying to bring him back to cognizance. Nothing happened for a brief moment, except for the invisible flame that Louis felt was consuming his hand.

Then, he opened his eyes.

If Louis was mesmerized before, as he met the boy’s eyes, he felt his world stop and crash down like a broken mirror, spreading every piece of it on an endless ground made of stone.

His existence stopped being a fact; he didn’t know who he was.

He only knew he wanted the green of this boy’s eyes to be his for the rest of his life.

“Thank God, you’re alive.” His voice came out as a simple whisper, barely audible. He felt shivers running up his spine as the boy stared, stared at him without speaking a word. “What happened to you?”

Not a word came out of that beautiful, sinful mouth. Louis moved a little, itchy in his place. The silence between them was intense, charged with emotions he wasn’t ready to face, so he needed to fill it.

“I don’t know who did this to you, but you’re naked and alone in the middle of a lonely beach.”

God, he was babbling like a nervous child. Yet his voice had never done this; sounded so soft and slow, almost as if he thought any loud note could break this boy in two.

“Please. Don’t— Don’t hurt me.”

The voice that spoke those words was nothing like Louis had expected. He had expected to hear a broken, maybe feminine, embarrassed voice; yet what he heard was a slow yet strong, deep mannish voice.

The voice.

That voice.

It took him a moment to come back to life and respond to the boy.

“Fuck. Fuck, God,” Louis stuttered, knocked for six. “I won’t… Did someone hurt you? Is that why you’re lying here?”

The boy merely blinked as an answer. Louis didn’t know how to take it, he didn’t know if he was making him uncomfortable, happy, miserable of what.

Fuck, he didn’t even know why he was lying there like a lost soul.

“Could you please tell me something, anything, love?”

“Louis.”

Okay, yes, Louis wasn’t expecting this. He wasn’t expecting this boy to know who he was, much less his name.

“How do… How do you know my name?”

“Help me,” he whispered in a broken voice. “Please.”

Louis sighed, closing his eyes as he tried to gain a little bit of patience.  Then, he felt cold fingers resting against his face. He gasped, speechless as he opened his eyes. The enigmatic boy was still staring at him, but he had finally moved, reaching a hand up to touch Louis’ sharp cheekbones. His touch was hypnotic, soothing.

It was a safe touch, but not safe in the way Louis was used to. It was dangerous but, somehow, also safe.

“Stop.” He’d had enough. This wasn’t normal, he was kneeling in front of a naked boy who barely seemed to know how to talk.  He needed to get his shit together, call the police and let them do their work. “Stop. Let me call for help.”

(He knew the stories. You know what he is, screamed his mind)

When he was about to take out his phone, the boy’s fingers slid down his face until they landed on his lips. It made Louis’ stomach twist, made his heart skip a beat and then begin to pound with a hasty rhythm.

“Please, no,” the stranger whispered, fear obvious on his voice. “They— please, don’t.”

“Please, yes,” Louis said ironically, feeling the way those long, curious fingers drew the lines of his lips. “I need to call the police, lad.” He didn’t really want him to stop, but he needed him to. The boy didn’t hesitate when he received the order, and Louis never regretted anything as much as he regretted losing his touch against his skin. “You shouldn’t be lying here, naked. Can you please tell me what happened? Who tried to hurt you?”

Of course, he didn’t get any answer, but it was worth trying. Deciding that he should do something about this, Louis extended his hands to help the boy stand up. Yet before he touched  him, he asked, “Is this okay?”

The boy nodded shyly, his cheeks getting a light shade of pink. Louis took him by his shoulders and helped him to sit up on the sand.

“That’s okay, you’re safe now. Lemme.” He took off his jacket, covering the boy with it. He offered Louis a weak smile as a way to say thanks, the most captivating smile Louis had even seen on a human’s face. “Hey, you’re smiling. I’m doing well, then?”

He didn’t answer but Louis didn’t expect him to. Instead, he wrapped him with an arm around him and tried to help him stand up. The boy didn’t seem to know how to use his legs because Louis had to hold his entire dead weight as he helped him into an upright position. As soon as he was standing on his lanky legs, the boy staggered and fell over Louis, who caught him just in time.

“Be careful, Thing. Are you drunk or something?” he teased, winking at him.

(You know what he is, his mind kept screaming)

The boy widened his eyes and his cheeks turned a soft shade of red at the wink. Louis’ heart fluttered at the view, melting at the sweetness of this stranger he was holding in his arms.

“Can you please say something to me?” Louis asked softly, reaching a hand to the boy’s face, placing a finger beneath his chin, forcing him to face him; even when it wasn’t necessary, the boy was already staring at him. “I feel extremely awkward here. At least your name.”

The way this boy started at him made Louis so uncomfortable. He was almost eating him with his eyes, drinking every inch of him.

“Harry.”

“Nice to meet you, Harry. Have we met before?”

Yes, they did, Louis’ mind scream. They knew each other very well. Louis knew Harry’s voice very well.

Harry didn’t confirm the fact, but he didn’t deny it either. He tried to stand again, but his legs failed him and he fell on the sand. Louis chuckled, melted by this odd yet enchanting boy. Everything about him was a mystery.

“Hey,” Louis chuckled, melted by Harry’s sweetness. “Be careful.” 

“Sorry,” Harry muttered, embarrassed.

Louis was starting to doubt his humanity. The answers were right there in front of him, as clear as water, but he chose to ignore them, claiming to be unaware of the question those facts answered.

“You need help to stand, babe?”

Harry nodded timidly with this head, the corner of his mouth curved in a small smile.

“Come here, it’s okay. I got you,” Louis whispered, wrapping his arm around his waist. Their bodies fit against each other as two pieces built to be together, one complementing the other. “What happened to you, Thing?”

Harry lolled his head to one side and nuzzled his face into the crook of Louis’ neck. It froze Louis for a moment, who wasn’t expecting this kind of physical contact so soon and he wasn’t expecting it to feel so— right.

“They tried to catch me.”

The words hung on inside Louis’ mind for a second, who wasn’t expecting to hear more than monosyllables from this boy. Shocked, he leaned back, trying to look into Harry’s eyes.

Nothing about Harry could be human. He stared at Louis as if he was trying to swallow him, to penetrate his body to reach his soul, a soul nobody had touched yet. He was so delicate in the way he moved, but his eyes were absorbing.

“Who tried to catch you?” Don’t ask the questions, Louis. “Why?” Because he’s not human. “An ex-boyfriend?” Harry didn’t answer. Louis didn’t push him to. “Okay, I’ll carry you to my car and drop you… Somewhere safe.”

Somewhere where he doesn’t belong, Louis thought. He belonged to the sea, Louis was sure about this.

Harry blinked, parting his lips. His expression screamed fear. “No. Please, don’t. I… Stay here. With me.”

“Okay.” Louis gave up so easily, but he didn’t mind. “I won’t drag you anywhere. Just let me put some clothes on you, okay, pretty Thing?”

A wary smile appeared on the corner of Harry’s eyes. “Okay. But—” he said, shaking his head. He blinked, as he thought an answer. He was low when he thought, low when he spoke as if he was extremely afraid of doing something wrong. “I need the sea. Had been out— long enough.”

Louis sighed.

“First of all, you’re going to put some clothes on you and then we’ll go to the sea,” Louis ordered and he never expected how easily Harry gave into his orders. “You shouldn’t be naked, you know? I can lend you my pants; I’m wearing briefs, anyway.”

He didn’t reply, instead, he stared at Louis as if he was the most beautiful and most amazing creature alive. It made Louis feel a little embarrassed, because even though he knew he was a fit and good looking guy, he was nothing compared to the beauty of this stranger. He quickly took off his sweatpants and offered them to the naked boy, who took them and tried to put them on.

Not without Louis helping, he finally dressed with clothes that were too small for his lanky body.

“There you got it,” he answered ignoring the voices inside his head that were screaming at him how dangerous this was. “Let’s go to the water.”

Harry couldn’t be human.

As they walked to the sea, where the water caressed the sand as a lover caress their parent’s body, Harry’s smell intoxicated Louis, impregnating his suit. He smelled like seaweed, salt, and the dew; a scent Louis never smelled before, except in the beach.

His phone started to ring on his pocket, what made Harry startle at the sound. His curious eyes looked around, trying to find the source, and when Louis picked up his phone, his green eyes never left him.

“Niall,” Louis growled as he checked the caller ID. He rejected the incoming call, annoyed.

He sighed, surrounded, and put his phone in his pocket as he turned to Harry, who was idly holding onto him. He was so tempted to kiss his unruly hair, to put a kiss on those beautiful long curls of his. 

“Niall?” Harry repeated, curious.

“A friend of mine. I’m… I’m a professional swimmer, I compete and all.”

“Swimming?” Harry said, hopeful. “I love swimming.”

“Yeah,” Louis nodded, chuckling. “I’m quite good on that, I promise.”

Louis tried to remain still, holding him with all the strength he could collect. He was so trapped.

Trapped in those green and mysterious wide eyes that were staring at him, as the only hope left in the world was the one that came with Louis. Moreover, maybe Louis was looking for an excuse to leave his duties, or maybe he was trying to screw up his life, but this boy, this boy wasn’t human and Louis was starving for his surreal charm.

“Nothing is going to happen to you. I promise, Harry.”

Harry poked up his head, curious. He was so cute that Louis wanted to snuggle with him on bed and put tiny kisses all over his body, covering him with love and care.

“Thank you,” Harry answered. “You’re good to me.”

“Well,” Louis said, shaking his head. “Couldn’t be any different with a thing like you. Look at that hair, those eyes. I bet you win all the girls.”

Harry ducked down his face, his hand reaching for a part of Louis to hold. He found his tie, so he clutched it in his massive hands. Louis covered it with his tiny hand, giving him a silent reassurance.

“I don’t want girls,” Harry murmured. Louis decided to ignore the comment as he helped him to walk to the shore.

“I don’t want girls, either,” Louis said casually, trying his best to ignore looking at Harry. He didn’t understand why he was explaining to this stranger, but he decided not to look further into it. “I have been into cock pretty much all my life.”

Harry chuckled softly, blushing like a three years old. When they reached the seashore and the water ran towards them and soaked Louis’ Vans, as well as Harry’s bare feet. As it did, Harry shivered and Louis swore he saw his feet glistening with a dash of green.

Louis gulped, a little nervous.

(He knew the stories)

“This is nice,” Louis said as they walked towards the shore, Harry held him closer. “You won’t tell me what happened to you, would you?”

“Told you,” Harry insisted without a problem. “They tried to catch me.”

Louis didn’t turn to see Harry, but his expression made it obvious it annoyed him to be there without knowing something. Harry buried his face in Louis’ shoulder as if it was the most normal thing to do.

The physical contact didn’t seem to scare him as much as it scared Louis, whose heart literally stopped beating for a second.

“Aren’t you afraid?” Harry asked and Louis wasn’t sure what he was referring to, so he opted to reply as he pleased.

“Sea doesn’t scare me. My dad is a fisherman,” Louis explained, without having a clue why he was talking to this stranger. “I grew up in the beach, so the sea is almost my second home.” He swallowed hard, feeling Harry’s piercing eyes glued onto him.

The sound of running water contrasted with the soft waves breaking against the rocks. The calm surrounding the sea seemed to be so far away from the city, it surprised Louis to think that they weren’t as far as it seemed to be. The calm wrapped every corner, every tree on the place. Everything gave Louis a strange sense of peacefulness he never thought he could feel.

He felt in peace with life, with the word. He felt like home.

“Thank you,” Harry whispered after a while.

Louis swallowed the lump in his throat, feeling the guilt that lay in his heart as the worst illness of all. His heart was aching to do a different thing, as his wiser brain told him to watch out, to be careful.

“It was nothing. I’d like to know who threw you there, naked, but I know you won’t tell me, so…”

“You won’t like me,” Harry explained, furrowing.

“Trust me, nothing scares me anymore,” Louis sighed, rolling his eyes. “I tend to date assholes.” Expect this wasn’t about an ex-boyfriend. “I’m used to this kind of things.”

“It’s not that. You know what I mean.”

Louis opened his mouth to reply, but he found no words to do it. Right inside his mind, Louis knew it was better this way. He didn’t want to know where Harry came from.

“I want you to stay,” Harry insisted, pushing the matter. “Please.” He made a tiny, reluctant smile as he hugged himself with his arms. The sleeves were too short for his long arms, but it made him look adorable. Louis wanted to cuddle him and kiss those curls until the end of his human life.

“I will stay if you tell me who and why wanted to catch you,” Louis said, arching eyebrows.

“I—” was the only words that came out of his pretty mouth. “I don’t know.”

Louis did know what that meant, but he didn’t want to look further into it, either way.

“Stay?” Harry pleaded one last time.

Louis stared into his eyes and found out that he didn’t know how to say no.

“I can’t, Thing,” Louis said. “Have to train, Niall will kill me if I don’t go. But—“ as he said the world, Harry’s eyes lit up with hope. Louis ignored how much he wanted to kiss that pretty face. “I’ll come back tomorrow to check on you, okay? Promise me you won’t leave the shore. You’ll be safer here. Promise?”

He knew he was getting into a real mess.

“Okay,” Harry accepted, grinning with happiness. “Promise.”

“They won’t catch you, little Thing.”

 

//

 

 

Louis had questions. Thousands of questions, but he didn’t want answers at all. He was fine like this, he knew where he was standing, he knew the voice, now he knew Harry _. It was enough._

As the weekend approached, he drove away to his mom’s without even visiting the beach. He wasn’t going to pretend Harry didn’t make him curious, _hell he did_ , but he knew the stories.

He wasn’t ready to face them.

“You’re quiet, Louis, dear,” his mother noticed that morning. “What’s on your mind? Something about the competition?”

 

“No, not really,” Louis denied, stirring his coffee lazily. “Niall is great and we’re doing fine. ‘S not that.”

“Then tell me what is it, darling.”

Jay passed Louis the bread toast platter; he took one as he tried to figure out how to approach the matter.

“Do you remember the stories you used to tell us when we were kids?” he asked, glancing at Lottie and Fizzy, both of them were too busy with their cellphones to notice him.

“Yes, I do, sweetheart,” Jay nodded as she filled her mug with coffee. “Your father is a fisherman; we’re full of those stories.”

 _He is_ , Louis thought as he chew his toast. He had never paid attention to the stories, but they clearly had worked right in his mind, they were the reason why Louis have accepted Harry’s existence without much fuss.

Okay, _yes_ , maybe Harry’s eyes helped a little, too. And his voice.

“I… I mean, where they come from?” Louis asked, trying to sound spontaneous, as if the matter was popping into his mind right away. “What if… they are real?”

Jay chuckled at the comment, raising her eyes to stare fondly at his oldest son. She didn’t believe a word of those stories, Louis knew it by the look in her eyes.

“They’re not real, darling,” she said with a voice that reminded him of when he was younger. “They’re just stories.”

“So what?”  Louis asked a little defensive.

“Stories aren’t real, Louis,” his mom prompted, arching eyebrows.

“Aren’t we a story?” Louis said back, cleverly. “As far as I know, we’re all real.”

Jay didn’t know how to react at his comment, so she merely looked back at him in silence. She remained a second in silence, thinking about a possible come back.

“You remind me of Mark,” she said, eyes glistening with nostalgia. “He used to defend those stories all the time.”

“Dad?” Louis asked, frowning. He had never imagined his father as a fantasy believer. “Dad believed?”

“He’s a fisherman after all,” his mother said, shrugging. “You know what they say about fishermen… What they see in the sea, we will never know.”

Louis was stuck staring at his mother, her words lingering in the back of his mind. He knew the stories but he never considered the possibility that someone, his father of them all, believed in them.

“They might be real, sweetie. Truth be told, you never know.”

 

 II.  ** _The Questions_**  

The drumming inside his chest was impossible to ignore as he left the city behind and drove into the beach. His sweaty hand clutched the wheel with excessive strength, a result of the emotional mess he was trying to control. 

He arrived at the beach when the moon was high on the sky, illuminating everything around it. The sound of the sea moving filled every corner of the peaceful place, sunk in a heavy darkness only cracked by the moonlight. 

Louis grabbed his phone and turned on the light, trying to make his way to the shore without falling. He has never been a man of adventures, he knew it, but Harry was worth the risk. 

Well, if he actually saw him again. 

 _(He knew the stories)_  

He was starting to believe that everything that happened on the beach had been a creation of his confused mind. An illusion, a trick of his own mind. He was so desperate to find the right path of his life that he had created a perfect hallucination. 

 _He can’t be an illusion_ , Louis reminded himself. 

When he reached the seashore, he saw nothing. Not a sign of Harry, the nature and the fog were the only company Louis had.

A soft wind blew over the place, making him shiver. He zipped his hoodie, burying his head in the neckline. His eyes ran wild, lost in the depths of the beach, a beach that had nothing but memories of him. Him, who was probably the creature Louis needed to forget. 

“Harry?” 

He spoke his name hesitantly, shyness filling his faithless voice. The hints of madness made him believe his sanity a little lost. Being there alone in the middle of the beach calling for someone who he wasn’t sure it had been product of his imagination or not, was it normal? Was it sane? 

Something as beautiful as Harry couldn’t be product of a human mind. 

He stood in the middle of the sand, waiting for something, anything to prove him wrong. No one, not even the wind told him otherwise. Maybe it was for better, better for his life and the reality of a human life who wasn’t made to be shared with a fantasy creature. 

It was better for everybody. 

Everybody except Louis. 

“Harry, if by any chance you’re here, can I please see you?” 

He swallowed his embarrassment, burying it in the bottom of his heart. He felt so fucking stupid there, but for some odd reason his body didn’t want to react at his brain’s order. 

Run, this is madness. Run, this isn’t sane. 

Louis didn’t want to walk away. 

 _He wanted Harry._  

He stepped into the water, forgetting for a second that he was wearing his new Adidas. The coldness from the seawater soaked through his bones. As he sunk deeper into the sea, his eyes got used to the light, distinguishing more than mere silhouettes.

  _Nothing._

Juts water. Immense, crystal water reflecting the moonlight, creating a soft light that was enough for Louis to see. He turned off his phone and put it in his pocket, eyes used to the moonlight.

He sighted on defeat, believing his luck ended. His mind screamed words of desperation as the beat of his heart prayed to God to make it happen again.

Louis lost it; he lost his chance with Harry. The strange creature had been ephemeral like a reverie.

Louis came back to the shore and sat on the sand, no caring about how wet his sweatpants could get. As he stared at the horizon, he got into a strange trance where nothing existed except him, the sea, and _the voice_.

When he fall upon realization, the singing voice stopped. It had trapped Louis in a daydream, losing track of time.

“Harry!” he yelled to no one in particular as he stood up, walking into the sea. “Harry, I know you’re here!”

“You’re gonna die drowned!”

Harry appeared unexpectedly, out and straight from the water, his curls dripping water through his shoulders. His stunning face was soaked, shining with the moonlight that provided him a special halo that made Louis’ heart race.

“Harry,” Louis said in a whisper, Harry barely heard him. “Thanks God.”

He sighted, realizing how tensed he was and how much it affected the possibility of Harry being a hallucination. He needed this to be _real._

 “What are you doing there?” Louis asked and gulped, knowing that Harry was indeed _real_ , but without knowing _what_ he was. “It’s late and it’s cold.”

“I don’t mind,” Harry replied, eyes wide eyes open and fixed on Louis.

Louis didn’t know what it meant, but he didn’t look any further.

Harry was beautiful, beautiful in a young and childish way, beautiful in a way he never thought a man could be.

“Hi, Thing,” he whispered as he carefully got closer to the boy whose body was hidden by the water. “I know I promised to come a little earlier, but… Have been busy. I’m really sorry.”

“That’s okay,” Harry accepted his apology straightforwardly.

There wasn’t a single sound in the beach, everything has fallen into a comfortable and natural serenity. As Louis moved forward, the sound of the water alerted Harry.

“Please, don’t come near,” he stopped him and Louis obeyed right away. “Please.”

“Why not?”

He knew why. _He knew the answer and he knew the damn question._

“Y—you…” Harry stuttered, his cheeks getting pinkish. “You won’t like me.”

Louis rolled his eyes, but he didn’t approach the strange boy any further. The unspoken deal between them was clear and strong, a deal none of them had brought up but both knew very well.

“I bet your body is as beautiful as you face, little Thing,” Louis complimented. Okay, yes, he was purposely flirting with Harry now.

The boy giggled babyishly and stared at Louis with up growing curiosity mixed with a strange sentiment of devotion. Louis smiled at him, Harry’s cheeks turned furiously red and his eyes dropped to the ground immediately. Louis wanted to reach out and wrap him in his arms, but he couldn’t.

“Thank you for coming again,” Harry whispered, flushed as he looked up at Louis again.

For a strange boy living in the beach, Harry was really well mannered, Louis thought.

“No need to say thanks, Thing,” Louis assured. The fine features of his face captivated him; the way his curly hair fell on his shoulders made him look a little feminine and enchanting. “I wanted to know if you were safe. Did they— Hum, someone tried to hurt you?”

“No,” Harry shook his head. “Not here in the shore. They won’t come.”

“God’s sake,” Louis whispered, confused. “I can’t understand a simple thing about you. You’re so…” he looked at Harry, and he was already staring at him with those endless eyes filled with innocence, an innocence that made Louis want to take him and hide from the world. “Let me touch you. I swear I won’t look at your body.”

Although his mind was screaming for him to run away and put as much distance as he could with the boy in front of him, his body wanted another thing. He plunged into the water, making his best attempt to ignore Harry’s body, approaching him.

Harry didn’t even flinch when Louis invaded his personal space.

Louis rested a finger underneath his chin and forced him to look up. At the touch, Harry gasped almost inaudibly, but loud enough for Louis to hear and to send pins right to his lower belly.

“You know what?” Louis whispered, losing track of time as he stared at Harry’s green. “I was afraid I would never see you again.”

“Why?” said the creature whose secret was hidden under the seawater. A secret both of them knew, an unspoken very well-known truth.

Louis wasn’t ready to face it, not yet

“You belong to the sea,” Louis said in a first attempt to approach the matter. A weak attempt to know what Harry was.

_You know what he is._

“I do. You don’t.”

“I know.”

A promise was growing between them, a promise none of them wanted to acknowledge just yet.

“Let’s have a sleepover at the beach. Would you like that?”

Louis doubted someone could smile as bright and enchanting as Harry did.

 

 ** _III. The Answers_**  

They were lying on an improvised mattress of blankets Louis had made on the sand, a quick bed on the beach, wrapped in a mountain of covers that thankfully covered Harry’s body entirely, leaving no sight to the eyes of Louis. His face was so captivating that left Louis breathless for a second. His eyes were shut, but his expression was relaxed.

He was submerged into the deepest and restfulness dream he had in years most likely, and Louis wanted nothing but to sit by his side and watch the lines of his fine features for the rest of his days. Harry was beautiful, beautiful in a young and childish way, beautiful in a way he never thought a man could be.

“I promise,” he whispered as he held the boy in his arms, “I won’t ask questions. I promise. I’m not scared.”

The sound of the incessant movement of the waves and the crash against the shore were the only sounds around them; everything has fallen into a comfortable quietness. No none was there to witnesses Louis’ promise. 

Two weeks later, they started to count the stars in the sky. Harry said he had found two hundred. Louis said he found just one and it was shining right in front of his eyes. Harry smiled at him and Louis didn’t know how he made it without kissing him.

 

 //

  

“Do you have a family?”

Louis ran his hand by Harry’s soft hair as the man’s head rested on his chest. The moon wasn’t there with them, but they were glad because the moment was too intimate to share it with anyone else beside the stars.

“I do,” Louis nodded. “Big family. Loads of sisters.”

“Tell me about them.”

That night, Harry claimed to have found the brightest star in the sky. He smiled at Louis and leaned forward, nuzzling the tip of his nose against his cheek. Louis’ heart skipped a beat.

He understood.

“Maybe we’re just two starts in the sky,” Louis whispered under the dark sky of the night. “Maybe we’re meant to melt together and make one big nebula.”

He dreamed with mermaids and starts that night.

 

//

 

Thing was, Louis was scared. Scared to death, because despite of meeting Harry, trainings were not as appealing as they were before. He was scared of not being enough for the only thing he was supposed to be great doing.

He was scared about leaving, but also scared about staying.

He looked for comfort in the only thing that had been making it better since day one: Harry’s voice. 

“Hello, Thing.”

Harry was in the water when his lullaby stopped. His moves were delicate, defined and gentle as a symphony. He walked towards the edge of the shore with his eyes fixed on the boy, who didn’t notice his presence until Louis called his name. 

The boy smiled, drops of water running down his face, dripping from his eyelashes, soaking his pale skin and giving him a special glow. Louis couldn’t see his body under the water, but he didn’t try to either. 

He wasn’t going to ask questions, not as long as he didn’t need the answer. 

“Hi, Lou.” 

Louis offered him the sweetest smile he could manage to do and sat down on the muddy sand. Harry approached him, leaving a trail in the water behind him.

 _He’s so beautiful_ , Louis thought as he approached him. 

“You’re a proper fish, little Thing,” Louis teased and reached a hand to caress Harry’s wet curls, curls that were screaming to be touched. 

Harry froze at the sudden physical contact, but he quickly leaned into his touch and went to rest his head on Louis’ lap. 

“Sorry for coming so… out of the blue. I missed you,” he said, knowing that it was the right thing to say as much as it was the worst thing to say. “I’m having a rough time, to be honest. My mind won’t leave me the fuck alone.” 

Harry purred as Louis pulled his hair a little, pleasing him. As the water retired from the shore, it let visible a pair of long, bare legs from Harry. Louis sighted on relief. 

“Hum.” Was Harry’s only response, who had his eyes closed and a pleased expression on his face as Louis stroked his hair. There was no moon in the sky, reason why Louis could barely see anything around him. 

Yet he couldn’t keep ignoring what his eyes had seen. He couldn’t pretend the green on Harry’s leg was a mere product of his imagination. 

He had promised to never ask the question, but the answer was lying there in front of him. 

“Haz.” 

The question was unspoken, but it was there. Harry nodded, tensing under Louis’ touch. 

“No, please,” Harry gasped, a simple plea for mercy. 

None of them wanted the question, but both of them had the answer. Harry didn’t continue, but Louis didn’t need him to anymore. He already knew the goddam answer.

Harry turned at him with wide eyes. Louis felt his mouth dry. 

“You promised.” 

Louis didn’t answer. Harry’s eyes were fixed on Louis as the seawater caressed their skins, soaking the sand. 

The water didn’t go back straightaway. It covered them as a silk sheet, a sheet that hid all their secrets, secrets they weren’t ready to say. When the water finally went back in the seashore, it exposed Harry’s naked body, leaving no doubts to Louis. 

He wasn’t human. 

 _He was a merman_. 

“Holy fuck,” Louis said, shocked. He was ready to think about it, but not ready to face the truth. It was not a mere possibility anymore, it was a fact. 

More than a confession, more than a simple detail that changed their lives. It meant hopelessness, a dead end. It meant their love was broken before it was started. 

It meant something Louis refused to believe. 

“Fucking God, Harry. No. Please, no.” 

Harry sat on the sand, moving his long and slim green tale covered in glistening flakes, exposing his merman fluke, shining under the nightlight in shades of dark green, mixing with the seawater that dripped from it. 

“This is what I am, Louis. You know that.” 

“Fuck.” 

Louis’ brain couldn’t process the things his eyes were seeing. This couldn’t be real. 

 _A merman._  

Harry attempted to reach out for him, a little desperate to have a reassurance, but Louis didn’t hold his hand. 

A merman. 

Harry was, indeed, not human. 

That fact didn’t scare him as much as the knowledge that where it laid Harry’s secret, it also laid Louis’ defeat. He couldn’t be with a merman, but he wanted to be with Harry. 

Louis was finally standing in front of the proof that Harry wasn’t human and had never been one. When he tried to breathe, he couldn’t. 

“Are you afraid?” 

Louis hadn’t realised the short distance between them. Harry had slid forward on the sand, invading Louis’ personal space and he was looking at him with pleading eyes, wanting nothing more than acceptance and love. 

Hell, Louis wanted to give him that love. 

“No,” Louis shook his head, still hesitant. “No, of course not. I wasn’t just… Fuck, Harry, I don’t need to know this.” 

Harry’s face dropped pale serious. “Why?” 

“Because—” Words didn’t come to Louis’ help. “Shit, I honestly don’t need this. Why would you show me your— thing?”

Harry’s eyes widened when he spoke, his bottom lip quivered noticeably. He was shocked, appalled to say the least, and Louis couldn’t understand why until he spoke up.

“Lou, ” Harry stuttered, eyes sprinkled with tears. “It’s who I am. I wanted you to know. I— Louis, I love you.”

Louis couldn’t act in response.

The words scared him to death, icing his blood as he turned self-conscious not only of the way he was starting to act with Harry, but also the exact position they were standing right there. Together, draped in the other’s eyes, so close, so freaking close.

His mind refused to acknowledge the words spoken by the merman.

They had been building a bond between them for months, a bond they hadn’t even know it could exist. A bond that forced Louis to ask the questions to the answers he hid inside in the back of his mind.

“Harry, no,” Louis gasped, suddenly stepping back and getting rid of Harry. The wet sand made it difficult to run, but Louis tried anyway. “This won’t happen.”

“Louis, I…”

“Don’t touch me!” Louis warned him as soon as Harry reached an arm to grab his. The young boy stopped halfway, freezing on his place. “This… This can’t happen,” Louis gasped as he reached the shore, getting out of the water. “It’s better to cut it out now.”

“Louis,” Harry’s voice was hurt and a little rushed, his eyes were so easy to read, so truthful to Louis that it was not hard for him to see how much he detested being treated the way Louis was treating him.

But then again Louis’ sanity, the only part of his mind that still let him thought as human, that part was telling him to push Harry away because he was dangerous and whatever they were trying to build was crashing down before it was started.

“Harry, this has to be over. Don’t sing to me ever again, okay? I know you’re…” he scoffed, annoyed with himself. “You might have this stupid pretty face and green eyes, but this won’t work out. This is over.”

“Please!” Harry exclaimed, a little too loud so his voice echoed on the beach. “What did I do wrong?”

“You did everything wrong,” Louis shouted, cruelly. “Harry, your mere existence is a mistake.”

 

 ** _IV. The Swimmer Pays._**  

Four sleepless nights couldn’t break Louis. He was a fighter, a strong one. He wasn’t giving into his feelings.

 

//

 

Eight sleepless nights were enough for him to break into tears, tears his pillow swallowed, protecting a secret that remained locked in the four walls of his small room. A week of crying himself to sleep did the rest of the work.

 

// 

 

His voice was more than a shout, a desperate prayer for his reason to live. Louis’ voice echoed in the infinite shore as the moonlight observed the scene. The answer came right after, but a little tentative. 

“Lou?” His beautiful, mannish voice responded in the distance. “You came.” 

Louis’ heart skipped a beat as he looked up, trying to find Harry. He found him wearing Louis’ hoodie, standing on the improvised mattress he had made weeks ago, where they used to lie and watch the stars as they exchanged tender love promises. 

“Haz.” The pet name fell off his mouth naturally. The boy didn’t smile though, eyes fixed on Louis, watching him with the intensity of a summer sunshine. “Hey. Hi. I… Is it okay that I’m here?” 

Harry licked his lower lip, nodding leisurely. “I… guess.” 

“Okay. ‘m…” Louis stuttered, trying to show off a casual attitude. Deep inside, he was made a ball of nerves, crumbling in front of the mesmerizing beauty of his Thing. “I… Fuck, I’m here to apologize. I was a proper dick and I’m sorry.” 

Harry’s eyes shone as Louis spoke. Perhaps it was ridiculous that Louis could see his sparkle through the distance, but he seemed to be able to notice everything about Harry. His humanity was visibly in front of Louis, and he tried his best to ignore, to forget what he had seen. 

“Yes, you were.” 

Louis chuckled, rolling his eyes. He wanted to reach forward and touch Harry, wrap him into his arms. He merely stepped forward, tentative. 

“Please, forgive me,” Louis begged, giving no time for Harry to answer. “I… I’m so, so sorry. And if you don’t want me here just tell me, okay? I can go and…” 

“No,” Harry interrupted him, reaching an arm to him as if he was trying to touch him through the distance. “Please, don’t go.” 

The plea hit Louis with the ferocity for a hurricane. It lit up a spark inside his gut, a spark he had read about thousands of times, but had considered a myth. He couldn’t manage to express the explosions of feeling he felt inside, so he barely smiled at Harry, overwhelmed by his own emotions. 

“I missed you,” Harry confessed. His voice was a broken lullaby, one Louis wasn’t ready to hear. “I’m sorry that I am— this.” 

“Harry,” Louis answered at the tiny, shy plea. He walked forward, plunging his feet into the wet sand without caring about getting his shoes dirty. Harry remained watching Louis walk towards him. “You don’t have to be sorry for being born the way you were. It’s just me. I’m the idiot.” He got no answer. “Are you scared of me, Thing?”

Harry’s cheek turned reddish as his green eyes looked down, embarrassed. It melted Louis’ heart; it melted his entire body. He quickly sat next to him and reached for Harry’s hand, who gave into his touch with so much ease.

“I just… I don’t know, I wish I was… different. Beautiful maybe, so I could… Be with— you.”

“Harry,” Louis spoke slowly, interrupting him, voice going soft as he approached the boy to hold his hand with his. “You are beautiful. Just… fuck, you don’t have a clue how beautiful you are, do you?”

If he was complimenting the boy in ways that were more than friendly, neither of them seemed to care. Louis stared at Harry, whose infinite green eyes were fixed on him. Even though his humanity was clear in front of Louis’ eyes, but he knew, he knew this creature was something more.

Louis held the only piece of humanity Harry shown to convince himself that this was possible. 

They said nothing for a long time, lost in the depth of each other’s eyes. Louis never let go of Harry’s hand and Harry’s thumb never stopped caressing his skin. They were swallowed up by the other, unable to express what they were starting to feel. 

“Can I… hold you?” 

The question Louis asked wasn’t certainly planned. However, watching Harry hurt, almost afraid of him, gave him an irresistible desire to wrap him in his arms and prove to him he could look after him better than anyone. 

Harry nodded his head.

“Thank you,” Louis cooed, stretching his arms to hug Harry as tightly as he could. The young boy leaned into his touch and nestled against his body as if it was the right thing to do. It overwhelmed Louis on a level he wasn’t expecting to feel. He swallowed hard, clutching the lost boy in his arms.   

“Don’t hate me,” Harry gasped brokenly. His hand looked desperately for something to hold, finding Louis’ shirt. He gripped it as if it was what could anchor him to the real world and let a small sniff came out of his mouth as Louis kissed the top of his head.

“No, Thing, I’d never,” Louis said complete trustworthiness, tears choking his voice. “I…” Louis swallowed the lump in his throat, his heart drumming inside his chest. He had never been this nervous, he was used to facing the world, but not used to facing a boy like Harry. “I’m so fucking sorry, Haz. I fucking like you so much and I think it is so crazy, and stupid, and impossible, because Harry... I freaked out, that’s all. I’m sorry.”

Harry blushed like a little boy, something that made Louis feel that strange urge to feel him, to feel him more than just physically.

“You’re so… beautiful.”

“You think that?” Harry asked quietly. He was slowly leaning into Louis; the small space between their lips was treacherous. Louis’ eyes dropped to his lips, rosy lips as soft as rose petals. The lines of his upper lip were a constant temptation for him; they were so kissable, so ready to be kissed. “You really think that… I’m beautiful?”

“I do,” Louis nodded with no tentativeness. “Every single inch of your body is delightfully beautiful, Harry. You’re so,” he slid his fingertips by the lines of Harry’s cheekbones, the younger boy’s eyes fluttered shut. “So pretty.”

“You’re a human,” Harry claimed, speaking what Louis knew was their biggest fear. “I’m a...”

“Please, no,” Louis interrupted him, broken. “Don’t say it.”

“Okay. I’m… Okay.”

“You’re not okay. I told myself that every single morning,” Louis sighed, resting his forehead against Harry’s. They were about to kiss, but what a kiss meant was too big and too significant to let it happen just yet. They didn’t want to go with the flow, they wanted it to mean something. More than it already did. “I know I’m lying. But I can’t help it. I want this.”

Harry closed his eyes and Louis breathed onto his mouth without touching it. His breathing hit his rose lips, lips he licked like a kitten, trying to catch a glimpse of his taste. The moment was intimate and silent; Louis followed the moves of Harry’s lips almost as a religious motion.

Harry snuggled even closer, gripping his silk shirt, holding onto him. Louis swore his thumping heart could be heard by the entire city, but for once, he did not care.

It was the shy voice of Harry the only thing Louis heard above his heartbeats. “I want this, too.”

 

**_V. The Realization._ **

Louis was scared. Weeks prove him that, but he ignored it. He wasn’t as weak as he thought he was, he could fight his fears.

“Are you scared?”

Harry’s question was sincere. He was staring at Louis with wonder, and Louis wanted to reply that no, he wasn’t scared. Words didn’t come for help, though, because even supposing he wasn’t scared, his shock was something difficult to hide.

Three days before, he would have answered yes. Right now, he wasn’t sure.

“You are.”

Louis wet his lower lip with the tip of his tongue, looking up at the creature in front of him. He reached a hand to his face, cupping Harry’s strong cheek on it, pressing his fingertips against his soft skin.

“I wouldn’t stay scared, baby,” Louis whispered in a voice barely audible. “I’m surprised, that’s all.”

“But,” he muttered slowly. “Do you believe me?”

“I—” Louis muttered, taken aback. “I do, Haz. There is no way I could not believe you. Yet… It’s hand to process.”

Harry licked his lips hesitantly, carefully trying to avoid physical contact between them. It ached; the need to feel him again ripped Louis’ heart and made him unable to breathe. Harry was delicate, responsive to any kind of emotion, bad or good.

“You… Want me?”

Louis sighed, running his hand through his head. Yes, yes he wanted him. So much. He wanted him as he never wanted anything.

“Yes, doll. I want you.” Yet again, being honest with Harry felt right. He didn’t feel any guilt for speaking his heart. The boy smiled at him, still cautious. Louis took his chance.

Louis wasn’t sure if Harry knew what a cuddle was, but he took it as a yes. It wasn’t hard for them to find a place in the back seat of his car, snuggling in between the blankets as the pouring rain fell on the beach.

The night was heavy and the shooting between the rain and the ground created a noisy lullaby, as Harry snuggled into his side, Louis could hear nothing except the calm rhythm of his breathing. They tried to make of themselves the smallest ball they could, and Louis threw a blanket over them to protect their bodies from the cold of the night.

“Will you sing to me, Harry?” Louis asked as he wrapped his arms around Harry’s waist, who quickly positioned himself to be the small spoon. Louis buried his face on the back of Harry’s neck, breathing in the smell of the sea.

He had never felt anything like this. All his past relationships, all the sex he had, all the cuddles— it was nothing because this moment was everything.

“Always,” Harry muttered as an answer.

Louis fell asleep with Harry’s lullabies printed on his heart.

****

**_VI. Swimmer No More._**  

“Fantasy is a lie.”

“It is?” Harry asked. He was shifting into a peaceful sleep, lying on the beach on their small love nest.

“It is.”

Louis didn’t believe in fantasy anymore. Fantasy was part of reality; the separation between them was useless. The separation meant Harry and him would mean to be in separate worlds.

He didn’t want that. He wanted to be with him, wherever it was.

The line between fantasy and reality was a blunder.

“I’m glad I met you, Haz. I’m glad you always sang to me.”

“I’m glad you’re not scared.”

Louis didn’t answer. He was starting to realize that he was, in fact, scared.

 

//

 

“Okay, we got two more rounds and then the final stretch.”

“I can’t do it anymore, lad.”

Louis wasn’t supposed to stop the training without a reason, but fuck it, he thought. Niall, who was standing in the corner of the swimming pool, dropped his timer and crossed his arms over his chest.

“We’re two weeks ahead the competition, may I remind you,” Niall muttered, a little annoyed. “Can’t you keep swimming?”

“No,” Louis growled, rolling their eyes.

Louis didn’t worry about keeping up with the banter because he had another urgent topic to discuss. Of course, Niall knew it before Louis could bring it up.

“I know what’s happening,” Niall said with utter conviction, an attitude that thrive to annoy Louis. “You met someone.”

Louis swam trough the pool until he reached the edge, where he met Niall, who sat down on the ground despite being wet.

“Yes,” he whispered. “Name’s Harry.”

“Is he the reason why you’re always late to the training? Are you thinking about abandoning this just for a man? Are you fucking insane?” Niall reprimanded him. He surely didn’t want to sound like a dick, but he did anyway. “Is he the dominant type?”

“Fuck no, Niall,” Louis denied, frowning. “He’s the less dominating person in this world. He’s just so… Fucking amazing. But it’s not about him, Niall. Well, maybe yes, but it’s about me, too. I’m not feeling this, I don’t think I ever did. I’m good at swimming, but not passionate. I don’t want to make something just because I’m good at it.”

Niall crooked an eyebrow, surprised. “Okay, this is serious then.”   

Louis sighed, running a hand through his wet hair.

“I know.”

“Do you have any idea what thing would you like to do?” Niall asked and Louis thanked mentally that he wasn’t making fun of him, that he was taking it seriously.

“Signing. But I have to be realistic, I won’t ever make it as a singer. This is real life, not a movie.”

Louis was glad the words of encouragement never came because, honestly, he was tired of the ‘you can do it’ speech. He couldn’t. He couldn’t even be with the only person that could have made of his life, a movie.

“What about this Harry kid?”

“He’s amazing. We met a couple of months ago. I feel like he’s almost…” he gulped, feeling the anxiety running through his veins. “I think he isn’t human.”

Niall broke into laughter at the statement, as if Louis was telling a joke. Of course, no one, not even his best friend, would have believed if Louis told him he was falling for a merman because mermen weren't supposed to exist.

“Then marry the guy, Louis,” Niall suggested, winking. “From all the dicks you have dated, this is the first time I hear you saying something like that.”

“But it’s the truth,” Louis asked, leaning forward to speak with his friend. “He’s so damn pretty. Niall, that beauty isn’t human.”

Niall smirked, holding Louis’ gaze as he became mortified with a prolonged silence. “You’re smitten. So smitten, Tomlinson.”

Louis didn’t try to deny a fact that was clear as water.

“I am,” he nodded, quite proud of it. He had never been so enamored with someone before. His mother always complained that Louis would never be able to settle down. “Is it bad?”

“Considering your situation, yes, it’s disaster. But you always liked disaster, so. Be careful,” Niall warned, calm. “It’s… I mean, you… What if he?” Niall didn’t ask the question Louis knew he wanted to ask. “What the fuck do you want, Louis? Please, you need to set your priorities straight.”

“Thank you for nothing, momma,” Louis muttered, a little annoyed that his trainer was perching him with life lessons.

“I’m being serious. More so, if you want to take your career more seriously,” Niall whispered. “The Olympics and your personal life don't get on well, mate. Leave the romanticism for later if you want to be a swimmer.”

Niall was speaking only truths, but those truths hurt Louis. He didn’t want to risk Harry’s safety.

“I won’t leave Harry.” Louis was sure about his promise.

 

//

 

“What’s this?” Harry asked, quickly taking the bags Louis was offering him.

Harry poked his head up, curious. He watched with huge eyes as Louis moved a little in order to grab the bags that were resting on the passenger seat. Pink and gold, the bags caught Harry’s attention instantly.

Louis liked to buy Harry things, things he didn’t know because he had never been part of the human world.

“Unwrap and see, Thing,” Louis replied. Harry smiled at his words, quickly unwrapping the packages, finding a box of little nail polishes.

“Pretty things for a pretty thing like you.”

“I like this pink”, Harry said, staring at the glittering bottle. He really liked glitter, he had found out when Louis bought him the most eccentric pair of glittery shirt Harry had seen.

“It’s for the nails. It’s called nail polish, they fit your— Hum, fit you,” Louis explained, taking Harry’s hand in his. The boy looked up at him. He loved when they hold hands; it was his anchor to the real world. “Do you want me to paint your nails, baby doll?”

Harry nodded enthusiastically. He knew Louis wanted to do it, so he let him be. To have an excuse to feel the touch of Harry’ hand, Louis was willing to do whatever he could. 

“Let me,” Louis whispered, as he sat cross-legged in the backseat. He opened the polish and rested it on the edge of the seat, being extra careful when he took Harry’s hand.

The atmosphere shifted so suddenly that nor Harry nor Louis did have time to fall into the realization. Even the air was delicate; everything seemed to be made of porcelain. The rain hit the car roof, adding a soft melody. The crashing lights illuminated the wood briefly, but they didn’t scare Harry. It was almost as if the rain was part of him.

Time passed as Louis worked on Harry’s nails, painting every single one of them, enjoying the way Harry’s amazed eyes didn’t stop staring at the glittering pink on his hands. Then, Harry broke the silence.

“Lou,” Harry whispered when Louis was done. When Louis looked up, he found his eyes filled with fear.

“Haz?”

“I meant it,” he babbled out, feeling his cheeks burning. “When I told you…” He stopped talking, nervous. He swallowed up his fears, closing his eyes as he tried to normalise his shaky breathing.

“Hey,” Louis whispered, cuddling him closer, trying to calm him. “It’s okay. It’s just me. Speak your mind, little Thing.”

Harry let go of a small whimper, staring at him with wide eyes. The raindrops on the window glass slid down by them, leaving a trace of water that blurred the sight.

“I mean it. I love you, Louis.” Harry was shaking now, scared of the feelings he didn’t know yet Louis had developed for him, too. “I feel safe with you. I don’t— Don’t want to come back. I want you. So much. You… You are…”

“My everything,” Louis finished for him, whispering. They were only inches apart; Louis cupped his hands on Harry’s face. Louis could easily count his eyelashes, and he felt the way his soul lose itself into the piercing green of Harry’s eyes. “You’re my fucking everything.”

Harry gasped, needing to feel Louis’ tempting lips. His eyes stared at Louis’ mouth, as a starved man looks at food. Louis wanted to kiss those lips, to feel them against his and he knew Harry wanted the same but he was too scared to ask.

As gentle as he could, Louis leaned forward and closed the distance between them. Harry’s eye fluttered shut as he sensed Louis leaning in, letting him press his lips against his own. The mere brush flared up Louis’ body, turning his blood into some kind of intoxicating and addictive drug only Harry could create.

They remained like that for what seemed to an eternity, lip to lip, losing themselves in the softness of the kiss. Then, Harry whimpered, lolling his head to one side, what Louis took as an invitation to deepen the kiss. Harry was so responsive to his actions, parting his lips as Louis licked the lower lip, tasting his flavor as his body craved him. The wetness of Harry’s mouth wrapped Louis in an explosion of sensations that drove him insane.

Both of them lost track of the time as they tried to melt into the kiss, hearing and seeing nothing; the sensation of their mouths eclipsed all other senses.

“Haz,” Louis gasped, breaking the kiss. He rested his forehead against Harry’s, watching him with glassy eyes. He slid his fingertips by his lips, lips that were used and puffy due to the kissing, reddish and damp with saliva.

Harry whimpered timidly, shuddering at his touch. He kept his lips parted, lost in the sensation Louis gave him with his trace.

“You’re so responsive,” he whispered. Harry knew he was, he didn’t know how but his body reacted to every little spur he gave him. He barely gasped as an answer, giving Louis space to lean forward and reach his lips again, kissing him softly. “How? It’s...”

Harry opened his eyes and found Louis lost for words. His eyes followed the sharp lines of his boy’s jaw, lines drawn with the perfection of a sculptor and the delicacy of a doll. He was the gorgeousness made creature.

“I’m so, so madly in love with you, you don’t have an idea,” Louis said unexpectedly. “We’ll make it. Together, as a…” He couldn’t say a couple because they weren’t supposed to be a couple. Even though Harry knew that, his heart skipped a beat. “As whatever we are.”

“How do you know?” Harry asked, hesitant.

“This,” Louis replied, taking Harry’s hand and resting it against the place in his chest where his thumping heart was beating. The beats of his heart surprised Harry, who thought it was the only one who had a heart that was trying to jump out of his chest. “My heart beats for you now.”

Harry smiled sweetly at him and puckered his lips just a little, silently asking for another kiss. Louis leaned into and gave him what he wanted.

 

**_VII.    The Revelation._ **

Everything was strangely calm that afternoon in the sea. Just Louis, his conscience voice and his father, both sat on his boat, fishing. The sea wind blew softly over them, caressing Louis’ hair and rocking the boat softly on the water.

Louis was silent as he held the fishing rod, eyes glued on the infinite horizon. He was aware that Harry could be anywhere near them, and the prayed for their sake that he didn’t choose to make himself visible.

“How is your training going, Lou?”

Louis turned to Mark, who was smiling at him.

“Good, I guess. Yeah, great.” He faked a wide smile, nodding with his head.

Mark patted him on the back, satisfied with Louis’ fake answer.

“I’m glad,” he said and then turned at his rod. “Jay must be happy that you found your path in life. Isn’t she?”

“I guess she is,” Louis nodded, not sure about his words.

“You don’t really regret being here with me, right?”

“No, dad, never!” Louis assured, secure. “You know how much I like to live by the beach. Honestly. Here’s the club, too, so I can train.”

“I’m glad, then,” he nodded, somber. “Did you catch anything today?”

“Not really,” Louis shook his head, shrugging. “Let’s return to the rock, shall we?”

“Damn, son,” Mark joked, winking at him. “Training got you real tired. Sure, let’s come back.”

Louis offered his father a smile, nodding his head.

“Go move the motor, son,” Mark ordered, taking the finishing road back. “Make me the favor, please.”

Louis obeyed, heading off the poppa. The night had fallen upon them, covering the wideness of the sky in a deep, strong black sprinkled with tiny little stars. Louis stared at the sky, thoughtful.

Then, he felt it.

There was something.

His heart started beating faster as he quickly looked down. It was nothing, the water was lonely, but a circle tray widening proved him otherwise.

There was, indeed, something.

Louis gulped and glanced back, trying to stop his father. Mark was busy with the finishing ropes, so Louis took a step further. His trembling hand held the railing, scared of finding what mattered the most for him, but couldn’t be known.

Yet there was nothing.

“Harry?”

His whisper echoed into the sea, a sea that replied with a dead silence. Then, after a killing minute, Harry emerged from the water. He didn’t go further than his head, green eyes glued in Louis’.

He didn’t say a word. He was staring with a serious expression, almost a fear one. He didn’t approach the boat, although Louis leant over the railing.

“Baby Thing, what…? Please, go, my father is here and…” He stopped talking as soon as he took note of Harry’s face. He wasn’t staring back with pride, love or admiration, he wasn’t aching to touch him, he wasn’t needing him.

He was scared.

Louis was taken by surprise, unaware of the reason why Harry was so noticeably scared. Perhaps was the boat and the fact that Mark was there, too, so he prompted, “He won’t see you. Trust me, you’re safe.”

Harry had his lips parted, eyes still glued to Louis. His head plastered to his pretty face, and although Louis couldn’t see his tail, he could imagine it.

“I’m not safe.”

That was everything Louis heard coming from Harry’s lips before he disappear under the water.

Louis had never been so lost. It had never felt so bad.

 

//

 

He crossed the city and drove away to the beach, where the rain was heavier and the thunder broke the night’s peacefulness as the wind violently shook the seawater.

For three days straight, he couldn’t erase the look in Harry’s face the last time they saw each other, so scared and so vulnerable that it made Louis desperate. His desperation grew within the days, growing bigger and bigger, making it harder to breath.

He was scared.

Scared of losing him.

His fears persisted for a while until the moment he stepped on the soaked sand, feet sunk in the seashore, calling Harry with desperate yells of neediness that didn’t embarrass him in a sight.

“Harry!” he yelled, but the sound of the heavy rain was louder than his voice. He wasn’t going to give up, anyway. “Thing, please, come to me!”

The waves hit his legs with force and anger, making it harder to stand. He tried, as the rain hit the sea with ferocity, making a loud noise that invaded every corner of the city. The beach was lonely, but what was new.

“Harry, please, don’t leave me!”

He was sure his screaming was useless. He gave up after a while, standing in the middle of the sea, soaked from head to toes and shaking with cold. The raindrops hit against his skin as hurtful bullets, icing his bones.

He couldn’t believe how much he needed Harry.

It was insane. It had been a month, only a month, and he was so dependent of the merman.

“Harry, please.”

He couldn’t distinguish between the rain and his tears, so he opted to ignore the latter. He was concerned, angry for not being able to understand why Harry hadn’t felt safe in his presence.

As he lost himself in his thoughts, a bigger and strong wave hit against him, making him lose stability and falling on the sea. His arms quickly reacted, propelling him to the surface, desperate to breathe. His legs floundered violently, helping his body to reach his source of life. As his head emerged from the water, a strong arm wrapped around his waist.

“Harry,” Louis said brokenly, eyes closed. He couldn’t see anything and his mouth was full of water, yet he knew those arms belonged to his merman.

“Why were you on that boat?”

Harry’s strong and deep voice broke into his mind, working as an adrenaline injection. He quickly opened his eyes and tangled his arms around the creature that was helping him to float in the middle of the water without drowning.

“Harry,” he repeated as a mantra, as a litany invoked to a God, a God whose existence explained everything in his life. “Harry, my baby boy.”

“Why?” Harry insisted. “Why did you want to hurt me?”

“Hurt you?” Louis asked, removing his wet hair from his eyes with his free hand. “I never tried to hurt you!”

“That boat did,” Harry insisted, talking loud to be heard over the clatter from the rain and the thunders cracking the sky.

“Harry, what do you mean?” Louis asked, and he wished they would having this conversation in some place quiet, as his boat or his car, not in the middle of the fucking water. A thunder crashed the sky and made Harry startle, who hugged Louis tighter and buried his face on his shoulder.

They were surviving thanks to the persistent moves of Harry’s tale, but he would get tired, eventually. Louis knew, so he pressed a kiss to his temple.

“Let’s go to the shore!”

“No!” Harry insisted and suddenly, he let go of Louis. He sank in the water, not expecting to lose his source of stability until he reached the surface again. The waves were too strong for him to be able to stay near Harry. “No, just tell me why!”

“I can’t—” He swallowed seawater as a wave hit him. “I can’t say if I don’t know what— are you talking about!”

He was out of breath, fighting against the anger of the sea was hardest than his training, and Harry noticed. He draped his arms around his waist and pushed him, swimming away from the middle of the sea and reaching the shore.

Louis’ heart was in a rush as he landed on the sand, exhausted. His muscles were aching with the pain of exhaustion, and his mind a little dizzy. Yet he felt the cold hand resting on his chest and the brush from Harry’s lips against his ear.

“Breath in. Breathe out, Louis,” the merman whispered softly. “Come on, please. Please, don’t leave me.”

He started to sing in his year, soft voice persistent in Louis’ mind as he tried to bring him back to the world. Louis opened his mouth, gasping for air, and tried to regulate his breathing and he counted to ten, focusing on the sound of his boy’s voice instead of the rough fight of the waves against the shore.

“I’m okay,” Louis panted, opening his eyes. Harry was already staring at him, eyes filled with fear. As they found each other’s gazes, the merman sighted on relief. “I’m okay, baby doll.”

“Thank you,” Harry whispered as he bent his head down, burying it on his chest. “Thank you.”

“Thanks to you, Haz,” Louis gasped, reaching a hand to his wet curls and started to caress them. “I swear I never tried to hurt you, little Thing. I rather die before hurting you.”

Harry nodded as he nuzzled his nose against Louis’ wet shirt, cuddling against his chest. Louis looked down and saw two legs instead of his tail, already out of the water.

“I know. But that boat,” Harry said, poking up his head to look into his head. “That boat tried to catch me. And you didn’t— want to accept what I am. I thought you… I thought you hated that I am a merman. Please, don’t hurt me because of that. Please. I love you, Louis. I love you.”

The truth fell upon Louis with the strength of a stick. He had never believed in magical creatures, but he had heard of them from his father’s stories. Mermaids weren’t supposed to exist, but if they do, they would certainly make their catcher millionaire.

His father told stories.

He remembered Jay’s words, her saying about fishermen. His father believed.

Louis realized the truth all of sudden.

“Harry.” He held him close, drunk in the love running through his veins. “I love you, too, so much. I didn’t want to accept this, to accept what you’re because— Harry, I need you.”

“I need you, too.”

“It was my father.” His voice was barely audible, but Harry heard him despite the persistent rain. “My father tried to catch you. I will protect you. Promise.”

 

**_VIII.    Paradise._ **

“Haz?” Louis asked as Harry lay in his arms later that night, the two of them wrapped in blankets and comfortably surrounded by pillows in the bunk from his boat, a boat he had finally managed to ask his father.

Their tummies were full and the smiles on their faces were too wide. Harry had his head resting on Louis’ chest, dreamily humming a song as Louis caressed his silky curls.

“Hum?”

“We can always run away, you know?” Louis suggested, eyes staring at the boat roof. “I don’t know… Drive away and find a lovely cottage somewhere. I could leave my work; you could leave the sea…” He stopped talking when he felt Harry tensing under his touch.

Maybe he was going too far, he knew that. Louis was going mental.

“Haz, baby?” Louis asked, trying to lift a little. Harry moved in synchrony until they were both sitting on the ground. Yet still, the boy had his face buried in the crook of Louis’ neck, breathing heavily. “Was this too quickly? I know it was, baby, but I am really, really reconsidering my life. I don’t think I can keep being what I am, Haz, not that I know you. You’re…”

“Louis,” Harry cut him off before Louis could go further, leaning back to face him. His green eyes were filled with tears, as soon as Louis’ saw them, he felt his stomach twist. “I can’t leave the sea. Never.”

_Never._

_Never._

The word kept echoing in Louis’ mind, but his brain didn’t seem to process it.

_Never._

“I—” he murmured, lacking the energy to raise his voice. “But you… you’re out of the sea, baby. Right now, you…”

“I’m a merman, Lou. I only survive a couple of hours out of the water. I… I’m sorry,” Harry apologized, breaking into sobs. “I’m so sorry, Lou.”

“No,” Louis said as quickly as he came back from his shock. They were close. So close. “It’s not your fault, baby boy,” Louis reassured and took his chance, leaning forward to press a kiss to Harry’s lips. Then, he looked into his teary eyes, trying to reassure him that everything was fine. “It’s not your fault, okay? I… Knew this. Fuck, Harry, I knew this. This is the reason why I tried to pretend you weren’t a merman. Shit, I can’t even figure out how to make it without you. I’m so fucked up.”

“I want to,” Harry sniffed as his body shook with the sobs. “I want to run away with you. I don’t want you to leave me.”

“Haz.” Louis has run out of words to say. It broke his heart in a million of tiny pieces to see Harry so vulnerable, so lost in front of him. This boy couldn’t be sad, nothing worked right if Harry was sad.

He leaned forward and kissed his sadness away, pouring into the kiss all the love he held for the boy. Harry shivered as Louis kissed him, leaning into his touch. Louis drew him down on the sea of blankets, placing himself on top of him, placing tiny kisses all over his silky skin.

“I’m sorry.”

“Thing, you don’t have to be sorry,” Louis cooed, understanding. He had fallen in love with Harry already; he couldn’t push him away because of his revelation. Louis had always known, anyway. “We can’t choose the way we are born. I was born a human, you were born a merman. We…”

“I wished I was human,” Harry whispered, cheeks blushing as he made the confession. “I don’t like… That’s why I have this body. I’m ugly.”

“No, please, don’t,” Louis interrupted him, leaning down to press a kiss on his rosy lips. “You’re the most gorgeous creature I have ever had the good luck to meet, Haz, and I want you like this. I don’t want a human. I want you,” he whispered, sliding his thumb by Harry’s right cheekbone. He was staring at him, catching every one of the words he spoke.

“I know what they say about me,” Harry whispered in a tiny voice. The confession made Louis’ heart skip a beat, not expecting this coming out. “They say I don’t exist,” he said, shaking his head. “I don’t know why they say that, it makes me feel so… alone. And if they believe, they try to catch me.” Louis’ body shook with anger as Harry spoke out about his deepest secrets. “But then you came. You’re not scared of me.”

Louis tried to hide the worry, but it was written all over his face. “I’d never, sweetheart. I was at first, I admit it,” he spoke his truth, too, Harry deserved it. “I was so fucking scared of accepting you weren’t… Human.” He kissed his boy sweetly on the edge of his mouth.

“I… like your kisses,” Harry replied. His hand tried to hold onto Louis’ shirt as he always did when he was nervous; Louis let him, covering it with his tiny hand. “I don’t want to lose them. To lose you.”

“Jesus,” Louis muttered, on the edge of the emotional collapse. “Harry, If…” He had to close his eyes for a second and count to ten in order to calm the struggle of feelings he had inside. He never felt this, he never went through a stage where his mind and soul could be so overwhelmed by feeling he didn’t consider real. “If there was a way, anyway, to be with you for the rest of my life…”

“There is.”

Harry leaned back. The expression on his face has made an unexpected shift, turning his fears into hope. Louis’ heart skipped a beat, watchful. He meant it when he said he was ready to do whatever it was needed to be with Harry. Yet the doubts lingered inside his mind as he nodded, giving Harry a chance.

“You can be water.” Harry threw the solution like a bomb. Louis didn’t react.

“What?”

“I’m a merman,” Harry explained. His eyes were still doubtful, but behind his doubt, it was starting to grow a bigger, strongest feeling. A feeling of faith. “If you become the water, then be would…”

“Harry, how could I become the water?” Louis interrupted him, shocked. The information he got was too heavy to process quickly. As a normal human being, Louis wasn’t used to magic and mythological creatures, the mere existence of someone like Harry was considered impossible and insane in Louis’ word. “I mean, I wouldn’t have a body and…”

“You can have this, but you will be water, too,” Harry tried to explain, although he didn’t make it pretty easy. “I’d bring you to the bottom of the sea, to the deepest part. A kiss from a mermaid can melt you with the sea. You will survive. You’d be part of me. I’d be part of you.”

Wasn’t this just like the real world? Louis thought. They were becoming part of the other, melting into the love they shared.

“I don’t— know,” Louis whispered, raising his eyebrows. “I mean, yes I know, I want it, but it’s hard for me to understand because…”

“It’s okay,” Harry said in a tiny voice, shrugging. “Humans like to be humans, I understand.”

“Hey,” he said, placing a finger beneath Harry’s chin. Harry refused to look in his eyes, embarrassed for how things turned out to be. “I didn’t say no.”

“Your face did.”

Louis chuckled, pulling from Harry so he was sitting on his lap again, right where he belonged. “Time will tell, baby doll. Time will tell.”

Louis closed the distance between them and kissed Harry on the lips. His body felt the ecstasy running through his veins as he sucked onto Harry’s mouth, tasting every little bit of him. He wanted him, he wanted him forever.

Louis put Harry down in the mattress made of blankets and undressed him, pampering to the fullest as he tried to give him all the love he deserved. In a following of soft motions, Louis used his body to trap him there.

“Lou.”

“Harry, this is so wrong,” Louis muttered, his hand running down his beautiful torso, starved of his touch. “So wrong.”

“But I want it,” Harry gasped, his eyes fluttering shut. His body was burning, a proof that he needed this as much as Louis did. “Please. Louis, please.”

“You beg so well,” Louis praised him, kissing the top of his nose. “So good. Can I undress you, Doll?”

“Yes,” Harry gasped, submissive to Louis’ desires. With every piece of clothing that Louis removed, his inner lustful desire grew stronger as his eyes strained for that silky, soft skin of Harry.

“Look at you, so perfect,” Louis cooed, kissing Harry’s chest. At that simple gesture, Harry let go of a small little whimper.

Louis knew how to do this. He had always been clear about his sexuality; he liked men and didn’t have any trouble saying he liked sex, too. However, in that moment, he was scared, scared of doing it wrong, of making it bad for Harry.

“Lou,” Harry gasped, his lips parted as he begged for another kiss. Louis closed the distance between them, holding his face firmly while he slipped his tongue inside and sucked on his lips.

He loved to taste his sweetness as he fought against his tight clothing, dominating the kiss until he finally left him just on his underwear.

Louis shoved his hips down, feeling Harry’s hardness rubbing against his. It made the younger boy shiver, losing the power to kiss Louis back, desperate.

“Baby,” he gasped, breaking the kiss. When Harry opened his eyes, his green was glassed out, eyes full of lust. Louis wanted so hard to feel him, to be inside him.

“I don’t know how to do this,” Harry confessed, a little embarrassed. “I never— done it with a man.”

“I’ll guide you, baby boy,” Louis said, leaning down to suck a bruise on Harry’s sensitive neck. He was acting on pure instinct, and the way Harry’s body reacted at his touches told him he was going in the right direction.

“I…” Harry gasped, closing his eyes. There was a trace of Louis’ saliva on his bottom lip; Louis leaned down to lick it, nibbling his lip to tempt him. He felt Harry’s cock hardening under him. “Want you inside me. So bad. Is that— possible?” His words caught up in his throat when Louis started to linger kisses all over his chest, finding his nipples. “Ah, Louis.”

Louis focused his attention on one of his sensitive nipples; he slowly traced the tip of his tongue by its outer edges, then he teasingly breathed over it, turning him on. Harry was breathing noisily, lost in the pleasure he was making him feel.

He had been with people, but nobody caused him this. Harry was just lying there and breathing falteringly and that got Louis hard as a rock.

“I have wanted to make you mine for so long, you don’t have idea,” Louis whimpered, moving a little so he could face his boy. Harry was delightful to stare at, flushed and desperate for any kind of touch. “Have you ever been with… I don’t know, someone? I mean when you’re in human form.”

“I’ve never been with anyone,” Harry confessed, blushing furiously as he spoke.

Louis gasped, knocked out by the confession. Harry, Harry was offering all his purity and virginity to him.

“Harry,” Louis whispered, reaching a finger to his lip, tracing the lines of it. “That would make me…?”

“My first,” Harry finished for him. “My only, also.”

“Baby,” Louis kissed kiss mouth, this time, softer. “I… I don’t deserve to have that.” He kissed him again, clasping Harry’s face between his hands. “I’m… Not worth that much.”

“That much?” Harry repeated, red-faced like the darling little boy he was, even though he tried to look relaxed. “It’s… Nothing, really. It’s just… I love you. A lot.”

“Harry, it’s… Your innocence.”

“It is,” Harry replied, eyes shining so brightly that Louis thought they could blind him. “What I feel for you isn’t… Impure. It’s the purest thing I ever felt, Lou. I want you to have me.”

Louis replied to those words with a kiss, unable to say anything else. Under him, Harry was starting to get itchy, kissing him more hurriedly as he gasped, unable to do anything since he didn’t know what to do. Louis loved to see him like that, desperate for him.

“Love,” Louis whispered, pushing Harry’s sweaty hair back while his hand skimmed his torso, reaching his lower belly. He saw Harry parting his lips; he pressed his fingertips gently against the line of his underwear, his body quivered when Louis slipped his hand under it. His boy whimpered loudly, breaking the silent atmosphere. “You sure you want this?”

“Yes,” Harry whined, staring at Louis with ease.

“It’s going to hurt,” Louis warned, wanting to have complete consent before doing it. His fingers, meanwhile, skimmed the sensitive area of his belly.

“Not different from our love,” Harry choked out, clutching the blankets in his hands as he tried to remain motionless for Louis.

“How do you want it, Thing?” he asked, reaching a finger to Harry's parted lips.

“How do you... Want it?” He asked back when his lips moved as he talked, Louis pressed a little harder his finger against them.

“It’s your first time.”

“I,” Harry said, after what he made a whiny noise. “Want to please... Please, you.”

The confession turned Louis on as much as it made him feel butterflies on his stomach. All the emotions merged in one immense outburst of feelings; there were not barriers or limitations when it came to Harry.

“You're such a good baby,” Louis praised, playing with Harry's lower lip, staring at his puffy mouth. “I can make you feel so, so good. I’ll give it all to you … and a little bit more.” Louis said in a hoarse voice, leaning down and kissing him on the lips. “We will go with the fingers first. Don’t want to take you just yet.”

“Lou,” Harry muttered, eyes teary. It was incredible how he sometimes resembled a little needy boy, Louis couldn't believe how young and helpless his boy looked right now. “Please.”

Louis was seeking to touch and take Harry, claiming him as his forever; but he wanted to be sure, much more if this was going to be his first time.

He leaned down and joined their lips in a slow kiss, one that made Harry whine a little as he felt the brush of Louis's lips against his without going further.

“Lay still, Thing.”

Harry gulped, his Adam's apple moving along his motion. Louis laid beside him, taking off his clothes as Harry watched; his eyes were eager despite his shy attitude. He closed the distance between them then he was fully naked, skin brushing against each other and mixing their sweat, sticky and hot.

“Do you want me?”

“Yes,” Harry answered, making a noisy sigh.

Harry was so pure, so untouched to his sight. Louis' brain was exclusively focused on the boy lying before him, completely defenses to his desires. He wanted to ravish him. Louis' fingertips skimmed his skin, now sticky due to the sweat.

“God, you’re so innocent,” Louis gasped, breaking the kiss. Harry’s lips were furiously red and puffy. “Look at you.”

“Is it— bad?” Harry asked in a low voice, burying his face in his pillow as Louis began to stroke his fingertips all along the sensitive skin of his groin.

“No, baby boy. It’s perfect.” Louis couldn't get his eyes off the smoothness of Harry's precious body, a body that was beautiful by itself. Knowing that no man had lain a finger on him turned him even more because he wanted to have Harry only for him, as selfish as it sounded.

“It means you’re only mine,” Louis spoke huskily, voice choked with lust. He kissed his cheeks, teasing as his fingers stroked his dick painfully slow.

Harry squirmed under him, letting go of a loud moan the blankets quickly swallowed up.

“Turn your head,” Louis ordered, hands gripping his hips. “Want to hear your sounds.”

Harry obeyed, eyes shut and mouth open as he gasped breathlessly, forehead covered in a layer of sweat. Louis wrapped his hand around Harry's dick as he started to work up and down in a slow motion.

“Louis,” Harry moaned, his body responded to Louis’ touches with small shivers, tensing his muscles, desperate to let go of his arousal.

Louis chuckled, forcing him to stay still under his touch. He leaned down to his neck, making him wriggle and huff under his touch.

“Thing,” he whispered on his neck, breathing against his skin. “Behave.”

Harry obeyed, remaining motionless all the time Louis teased him, stroking the right parts without going further, increasing his stimulation to the fullest, but without giving him a chance to unload it.

He tried to work Harry up to the fullest, speeding up his rhythm. As Harry moaned, he dropped his dick shortly to play with his balls, gently fondling them between his fingers.

“Please,” Harry begged, brokenly.

“Like when you plead,” Louis praised him, gasping into his mouth. “You’re a good boy, always obedient.”

He started to jerk Harry off with slow motions as he heard him pant heavily on the bed. He did it extra slow; the way Harry’s body squirmed under his touch turned Louis on to a point of pain. He had been hard, of course, he did, but this— this was blowing his mind up.

Harry was so beautiful; his sweaty body glimmered at the light passing through the small window, pure ecstasy printed on his beautiful face. Louis grabbed his own fat cock, aligned both vertically and started to stroke them as one. Harry's body quivered at the sudden contact and he moaned his name loud and breathlessly.

“So beautiful,” Louis gasped, praising his boy as his hands worked up and down, barely covering both cocks. Yet still, the sensation of their dicks rubbing together and their sweaty bodies plastered together was enough for send them to the edge.

Harry couldn’t even moan anymore, his mouth was open in a constant silent cry of pleasure; Louis brushed the tips of their dicks with his thumb, adding a little extra pressure on Harry's.

The young boy came without warning, unable to stop it, spilling his come all over the sheets and Louis’ hand, crying his name so Louis that he was positive it echoed in the whole damn sea.

“Oh God, baby, you came so hard, so well. Look at you,” Louis praised him, dropping their dicks, still needed of more to reach his orgasm.

Harry was spread on the blankets, breathless from his high. Louis shoved one of his fingers inside his mouth, forcing him to suck him clean. Harry obeyed, his rosy lips wrapped around Louis' fingers eagerly.

“Bet you taste fucking good,” Louis gasped as he leaned down to kiss him.

He wasn’t done for the night, he didn’t even come but he had a reason to hold it. He didn’t want to stop just yet, he wanted to have more of Harry, to taste him, feel him.

Harry let him suck and bruise his skin without protests. Every time Louis pressed his tongue against his skin, sucking on a special sensitive part of him, Harry’s body shivered as he moaned quietly.

He was spread like a helpless doll wanting to be played with, and Louis was more than glad to be the player.

“Lou,” Harry called him, his voice sounded so exquisitely wrecked, blowing Louis' inner lust.

“Can I keep going, Doll?” Louis asked huskily in his ear, nibbling his earlobe. As his first sexual experience, Louis knew it could be overwhelming and exhausting and as much as he wanted to wreck him, he wanted his consent. “I didn't come. Be a good Thing, okay? Make me come; I want to be proud of you.”

“Ok— okay,” Harry choked out, looking back at him.

“You’re gonna suck me off, baby boy,” Louis said, caressing Harry's sweaty forehead as he pushed his curly hair back. Harry was staring at him with glassy eyes, worn out yet so eager to continue. “Want those lips around my cock.”

“I... Don't know how.”

“That's why I'm here,” Louis said softly, sitting up on bed. “To teach you.”

“Hum?” Harry idly asked, raising his glossy eyes at him. Louis swallowed his question with a rough kiss.

With a breathless Harry under him, Louis knelt down on him, eyes fixed on the younger's. His dick was stiff and throbbing, Harry had left him desperate and fucking hard.

“You did this, Thing,” Louis whispered when he sat on Harry, who stared at his cock with wide eyes, lusting over it. He licked his lower lip as his eyes followed the motion of Louis’ hand and let go of a little moan, desperate to have it.

“Do you want me?” Louis asked, sliding the tip of his dick by Harry’s lips.

“Yes,” Harry nodded, so submissive and innocent that Louis couldn't believe he was actually asking to fuck him with his dick.

“Open your mouth, love,” Louis ordered, clutching Harry's face between one of his hands. Harry obeyed, opening his mouth to receive Louis' fat cock in it. “Good, Doll.”

Harry took his dick without complaint, eyes turning teary as Louis shoved it all in without compassion. Even though Harry had never sucked a dick before, he quickly started licking, working his tongue around Louis and trying to take him completely inside his mouth.

Louis was gasping, feeling the way his muscles tensed as he reached his high, so turned on by the sight of an innocent, wrecked Harry under him suffocating on his cock.

“Say my name,” Louis ordered, desperate to feel his name called by Harry in his state of sexual arousal and filled with his cock.

“Louis,” Harry gagged as he tried, the sound sent vibrations all over Louis' dick, sending him over the edge.

It was insane how much it turned Louis on, he loved to have him giving in to his own desires with so much ease. Harry, his body, and his voice was driving him crazy.

“So beautiful,” Louis praised him as he fucked his face, choking him when the tip of his cock hit his throat. Harry’ body was squirming under him; his saliva was running down his chin and his eyes were filled with tears, but he didn't complain once. “So mine.”

“Ah,” Harry moaned, eyes fluttering shut, as his throbbing dick was hard again against his stomach. He started to bob his head as he could, tongue trying to brush the head of his dick.

As soon as Harry started to move, Louis quickly lost all his capacity to talk and praise his boy. The nymph took his cock so well, sending him over the edge as his mind turned into a cloud of confusing thoughts where the only clear thing was Harry.

“’M close,” he gasped, arching his back, almost losing the strength to stand.

Overcome with his arousal, he thrust up and buried his dick inside Harry’s mouth, who moaned loudly as a response, his body trembled unexpectedly. Louis shoved in rougher this time, causing Harry to come untouched again, as he moaned his name, causing Louis to hit his limits and come in Harry’s mouth.

Harry's eyes fluttered shut, he swallowed every drop of Louis' bitter fluids, as a little bit slipped out of his mouth and slid down his cheeks.

“Fucking God, are you even real?” Louis gasped as he pulled out. Harry was staring at him dopily, a dazed expression on his lovely face. Louis leaned down and kissed him, wanting to compliment him.

He wiped the drops of come from his cheeks gently, taking care of that boy that had been a blessing for him.

“I want to do one last thing with you, Babydoll.”

He sat on the blankets, sliding his fingertips by Harry’s torso, making him shiver. Spread on the ground, Harry offered a vision difficult to forget: eyes closed, with his dick rock hard again, and his face flushed and sticky.

He was beautiful, Louis thought, he lost himself for a moment in the endless lines of his body, his skin covered in a thin layer of sweat.

“I,” Harry gasped, opening his glossy eyes. “Want— you.”

His choppy words made Louis notice how tired he was, but his eyes were still sparkling, letting him know how much he still wanted to feel him inside. He just needed a little encouragement.

“You sure?”

“Very,” Harry whined, the exhaustion was clear in his voice, but he didn’t ask Louis to stop.

“You’re gonna ride my fingers, okay? You’re my good boy, do as I told you,” Louis praised him, kissing him briefly on the lips.

“No, Lou,” Harry whined, needy. “Want you. Your cock.”

“No, baby doll,” Louis denied, authoritative. “I want you to enjoy other things before making love to you.”

Harry was a little gone, his eyes glassy; Louis knew it could be dangerous to put him into a euphoric state of arousal again, but he wanted it, he wanted to send Harry into subspace.

Louis reached his fingers to Harry’s mouth and he didn’t need to order, he took them and sucked them without an instruction needed, it was insane how understanding and responsive was of Louis’ desires.

Once he sucked them wet, Louis withdrew his fingers and carefully brought them to his bum. Harry clenched his cheeks, desperate, Louis introduced the first finger and he cried out.

“Like it?” Louis asked and Harry nodded hysterically with the head, lost on subspace.

Louis joined their mouth in a fiery kiss, a kiss where Harry barely did anything except to let his lips be sucked. He was starting to be overwhelmed by his feelings, sensations he had never felt before, and Louis wanted to push his limits.

Soft ‘ah, ah, ah’ left his mouth as Louis introduced two and three fingers inside him, opening up, getting him ready for more. It hurt his boy at first, the corner of Harry’s eyes were filled with tears he tried to contain to make Louis proud, which he did.

Louis praised him as he worked inside him, hitting his prostate and making him moan like a frantic man, the sight of his throbbing, fat dick pulsing on his stomach made Louis’ need hit its limits, sending him over the edge.

“You’re not gonna come yet, Thing,” Louis teased him, removing his fingers so Harry couldn’t have any contact.

“No, please, no,” Harry cried out, trying to speak clearly even though he was short of breath.

“No, what?”

“Want—,” Louis cut him with a rough kiss, enjoying the way Harry was squirming and begging to let him come. They have never talked about it, but their natural dynamic in bed was so synchronized, so perfect that Louis wanted to make most of it. “Want to come. Please.”

“Not yet,” he whispered against his mouth, breathing over his damp lips. “You’re not going to come until I say so, ok, little one?”

Harry gripped the blanket harder on his hands, trying to open his eyes to look at Louis, pleading to let him come. Louis chuckled at his desperation.

“Come on, baby boy, sit up,” Louis encouraged him, clutching Harry by his hips as he helped him to sit up on his lap.

“Please,” Harry whined, the exhaustion was clear in his voice, but he didn’t ask Louis to stop. “Want to come.”

“You’re gonna come riding my fingers.”

Harry growled as an answer, positioning his body between his legs to each side of Louis, so stunningly wrecked in front of him. He wobbled, unable to hold up his own body any longer, and he tried to collect all his strength to remain upright and Louis, who was starting to get hard again, stroking his dick lazily for a while.

He watched Louis jerking off his cock, eyes hungry again.

“Such a filthy Thing you are.” He took Harry's hand and brought it to his crotch, making him palm his hardness. Sensing how hard he was, Harry moaned. “Got me all nice and hard again.”

“Want you,” Harry gasped, closing his eyes and throwing his head back as he felt Louis teasing him, pressing just a little to tease his rim. “Lou, please.”

“Filthy Thing,” Louis gasped, pressing into a little. Harry choked out a sob, eyes shut as he felt the sudden pain of his hole opening to take three of Louis’ fingers. “Good?”

Harry didn’t have forces to speak, so he barely nodded his head. Louis wanted it to adjust, yet the younger boy had other plans. Desperate, he shoved down a little, crying out as he felt his body almost splitting in two to take Louis’ fingers.

“Louis,” he cried, burying his face on the crook of Louis’ neck. “Louis, it hurts.”

“Want me to stop?” Louis asked, kissing him on the neck.

“Ah, hurts— more.” Harry wasn’t making any sense, but Louis understood him. “Add more, please.”

“Babe,” Louis moaned, watching Harry take four of his fingers. “Go faster.”

Harry did as he was told, speeding up his rhythm as he moved up and down on Louis' fingers, trying to take all of him. Louis knew he was in pain, the nails digging in his biceps told him so, yet he could not manage to stop this.

He had never felt the explosion of sensations that ran through his body. He felt as if everything around him had blurred and nothing was left in the world except the boy who was riding him into oblivion.

“Babe, so beautifully desperate you are.”

Louis scissored his fingers inside him and finally hit Harry’s weak spot, making him cry tears of desperate pleasure mixed with the pain of being hypersensitive.

“Louis, please— Ah, again,” he whimpered, riding Louis with a now messy rhythm, trying to hit his prostate again. Louis gallantly obeyed, rocking back and forth inside Harry as the nymph intended to keep on keep on moving, gasping nonsense in Louis’ ear, completely gone.

“Baby, I’m hard,” Louis told, short of breath. “Touch me”

Harry did as he was told, while the whining noises that slipped out of his mouth and the constant shivers of his body told Louis his boy was close.

“Please, let me come,” Harry begged, almost on the verge of tears. “Please, I was a good boy.”

“Yes, you were,” Louis agreed huskily. “Come for me, Thing.”

Harry came for the third time without Louis touching, falling numb on him, breathless. He couldn’t keep stroking Louis, his limbs were dead, so Louis finished himself.

He came again with a cry of his boy on his lips, eyes seeing nothing but black as his head fell numb against the wall. His body was numb, lost in the highest orgasms he had ever felt.

Their sticky bodies were dazed because of the shot of pleasure, breathing trying to come back to normal. Louis couldn’t see or hear anything, he only could feel Harry’s body on him, immobile like a corpse.

“Haz,” Louis asked, a little worried when Harry didn’t even attempt to move from its place after some minutes. “Harry, baby, are you okay?”

It took him a moment to respond. “Hum.”

The answer was dry and lost; as if Harry were still somewhere far from there, absent. Louis kissed the top of his head and tried to move, being extra careful when he pulled out. Harry was unable to move a muscle, immobile like a doll.

He drew Harry down on the mattress of blankets as careful as he could, amazed by the expression of pure relaxation in Harry’s pretty face. He arranged the pillows around him and cleaned his stomach, dirty with his come.

“Hey,” he whispered, kissing Harry’s forehead as he snuggled at his side, resting his head on his hand. “Come back to me, little boy.” He had never experienced this, he knew of people who lost themselves in subspace after a particularly intense orgasm, but he had believed it a lie. It was Harry’s first time and he had managed to come three times without even complaining; perhaps it had been too much to ask from Louis. “Please, tell me something.”

“I feel tingles,” Harry managed to say in a slow, dopey tone.

Louis chuckled, leaning down to kiss his lips. “Dork. Are you fine?”

Harry did not answer. He opened his mouth to do it, but words didn’t come to his rescue.

“It’s okay. Focus on me, sweetheart. Come back to me,” Louis cooed, kissing over and over again on the cheeks. He linked their fingers and squeezed his hand, trying to bring Harry back to the real world through the simplest emotions. “I love you.”

Slowly, as if his eyelids were the heaviest thing, Harry opened his eyes. They were glassed out, a little confused and very drowsy.

“Hello, sweet boy. Look how beautiful you are,” Louis admired him, smiling sweetly at his boy.

Harry blinked lazily once and twice before the corner of his lips bent on an adorable smile.

“I’m tired,” Harry whispered shyly, staring at him.

“Of course, you are. You did so well. I’m proud of you, you know that?” Harry blushed and shook his head timidly. “Well, you do now,” he whispered, kissing the tip of his nose. “I love you, my beautiful little merman. So much that it’s insane.”

All those sweet words make Harry smile even wider. Louis softened at his adorableness, and for once, he thanked whoever had made a twist of fate and had put that nymph on his path.

“I love you too,” Harry said to him.

Louis wrapped Harry in his arms and cuddled him close. The younger boy nuzzled his face on his chest, glued to his body. “You’re everything I need in this life.”

 

**_IX. The Consequence_ **

Louis lost counting of the training he had skipped. Instead, he started to count the many times Harry made his heart skip a beat. The number terrified him.

 

//

 

The perfume lingering in the club was sweet and spicy, the scent of expensive perfume and nice cigarettes. A scent that meant party, champagne and people getting drunk to pretend they were normal. Louis didn’t pay attention to the people around him as he looked for Niall with his eyes, glass of champagne in his hand. There were too many people, too much falseness pretending. 

“Niall.” Louis sighed as he approached his friend, who was in the company of a pretty girl whose smile was too wide and her expression meant more than happiness, it meant alcohol. 

“Finally, mate, I’ve been looking for you like crazy.” 

“I have been here all the time,” Niall said, winking at the girl, who was staring at Louis as if he was some kind of rare specimen. 

“Please, can I steal him?” Louis asked the girl, but he didn’t wait for an answer, dragging Niall with him to the bar counter. 

Louis was scared. 

He had so many things of which to be afraid. It wasn’t just Harry and Louis, he knew this, it was bigger than that because his boy was a freaking merman. Yet he only lived for Harry. He was scared of those feelings, of the dependency he developing for the merman in just a couple of months. Harry had everything Louis never expected to need, but somehow, he did. 

“This is about Harry, isn’t it?” 

Louis stopped in his tracks, holding his cup of alcohol in his hand. He turned at Niall, who was drinking from the bottle, giving into the temporal thrilled emotions of alcohol. He didn’t answer. 

Niall frowned. 

“Yes,” Louis admitted, swallowing hard. His tone, blurred by the effect of the alcohol, sounded closed and thick. “Don’t get started with this shit, okay?” He said, taking a cigarette out of the box. He lit it up, desperate for any kind of relief to his anxiety. 

“You shouldn’t smoke; it’s bad for your training. What’s bugging your mind?” Niall pushed the matter, probably because he was pissed drunk. Niall wasn’t so sneaky when he was sober. “Is he a mermaid?” 

He was joking, but the joke made Louis’ shiver. 

“We made love,” Louis muttered weakly, closing his eyes. 

Perhaps it was quite a big revelation, but they have known each other for too long for Niall to care. Moreover, they were drunk, so they wouldn’t remember this tomorrow. 

“What?” 

“I said we made love,” Louis repeated. 

Harry wasn’t even human, his mind screamed. 

“Oh. Mate.” Niall said, eyes widening. “Mate,” he repeated, concerned. 

“What?” Louis asked, a little rude. 

“You said ‘made love’. Louis, wake up. You don’t make love, you fuck people.” 

“No,” Louis denied because he didn’t feel like fucking Harry was the right way to describe it. It was too banal, and he had felt something bigger than a physical connection. “God, who the hell am I?” he muttered as his thoughts surprised him. 

“I’m asking the same! What did Harry do to you?” 

“I… Don’t know.” 

“Was it good?” 

“It was fucking amazing,” Louis answered, recalling what he felt the night he had Harry. 

“Do you want to fuck him again?” 

Louis didn’t answer the question, although the answer was quite obvious. In its place, he said, “Have you ever felt like that… you’re not on the right path? But you know which one is the right one?” 

“Hum… No?” Niall answered, frowning. “What does it mean?” 

“I’m not sure I’m liking my life right now.” 

“What does it mean?” 

“Fuck you, Niall, I don’t have a bloody clue!” Louis exclaimed. He threw the cigarette to the floor, crushing it with the tip of his sneaker. “Why do you care, anyway?” 

Niall’s eyes were fixed on his best friend. Louis held his gaze, not willing to show any kind of weakness in front of him. He wasn’t weak, he wasn’t wrong. He was falling for the charms of a fucking magic creature. 

“I don’t want you to make a mistake, Lou, that’s all,” Niall apologized, shrugging. “Don’t get mad.” 

Louis rolled his eyes, softening at the apology. He knew Niall wasn’t trying to be mean or anything, but it drove him nuts anyway. 

“Fuck it. Let’s drown in alcohol.” 

“Yeah,” Niall nodded enthusiastically. “More alcohol please!” 

Niall ran to one his group of friends, pissed drunk on the dancefloor, leaving Louis alone with his struggles. 

Everyone around him was sweaty, celebrating something he clearly didn’t want to celebrate. Everybody was cheerful, happy, and hopeful. 

Louis had never felt so alone in his entire life. 

Tripping over his own legs due to the amount of alcohol he had consumed, he tried to escape from the living hell he was put under. The lights shut down as he walked, lighting up the ultraviolet light. Someone passed by his side, stroking his back, sticking his shirt to his sweaty skin.

“Please,” he gasped to no one special, making it among the multitude, desperately trying to reach the exit. 

Once outside, the autumn breeze made him shiver, noticing that he had forgotten his coat in the club. Instead of going back for it, he decided to light up a cigarette and stop a cab in the streets. 

When he got into the car, his destination was clear. 

“To the beach, please.” 

“What?” The driver asked, glancing at Louis by the rear mirror. 

“I said,” Louis said patiently, closing his eyes to stop his dizziness. “To the beach.” 

The driver didn’t dare to contradict him, he just drove away. 

Harry saw Louis coming from the shore. He didn’t come back to the deepest of the ocean because he couldn’t risk not meeting Louis when he came for him, thus for he lived on the shore. 

Louis was walking funny, tripping over his own legs and mumbling things to himself. It was strange to Harry that Louis appeared in the middle of the forest at past midnight. 

“Harreh!” he yelled when he found himself alone in the middle of the trees, sunk in the heaviest darkness. “Harreh, please, it’s me!” 

The merman shuddered, fearing the strange tone Louis was using. His eyes followed him as he walked in circles, calling Harry repeatedly. Even though he wanted to go to him and let Louis wrap him in his arms, the way he was acting was odd. 

“Harreh, please,” Louis gave up, collapsing on the sand, defeated. 

“Lou?” 

As he spoke, Louis raised his head, trying to find the place where Harry was standing. Even when it was dark, their eyes had no problem on finding each other. 

“Beautiful Thing,” Louis said, smiling dotingly at him. “Hi.” 

Harry came out of his hiding place, but he didn’t dare to approach Louis. Something inside his guts told him to keep a distance between them, he wasn’t used to seeing Louis like this. He was usually quiet and really protective of him, not loud and… 

“Sorry, I’m drunk as fuck,” Louis explained, burying his face in his hands. “My head pounds.” 

“Can I help?” Harry asked hesitantly, walking towards him. 

Louis made a crooked smile as he raised his eyes to look at him. When Harry was in front of him, he knelt down and let Louis intertwine his hands. His eyes were a little glassy and the smile on his face was more fond than usual, and a little dopey, too. 

“Yes,” he nodded mischievously. “Kiss me.” 

Harry frowned, disgusted by the smell of Louis’ body. 

“But you smell,” he said, scrunching his nose cutely. Louis chuckled, kissing Harry’s knuckles. 

“I know. I smell like sweat. And champagne.” He gripped his shirt and reached it to his nose. “Hell, I suck.” 

“Why are you here?” Harry asked, lolling his head to one side, changing the subject so suddenly that it took some minutes for Louis’ brain to respond. 

“Niall and I went clubbing.” It was crystal clear Harry had no idea what Louis was talking about, and that made him laugh hysterically. “I got drunk. So drunk. I can’t hold this anymore, Haz, I can’t stand the pain of not having you. I… Harry, why the fuck I’m so desperately in love with you?” 

The confession made Harry’s stomach twist. Every time he was with Louis, his body did the most eccentric things ever. 

“I want to kiss you. Only you. Forever,” Louis said without hesitating. The revelation hit Harry as a thunder, leaving him breathless. “Haz. Fuck, I really want to marry you.” 

Louis wanted to marry him. 

Him, a simple, poor merman that had nothing to offer except the sea. 

Him, a creature that had left his world to join this horrible human world in search of hope, of a friend. Instead, he found something bigger: he found love. 

“Louis.” It was the only thing Harry managed to say, but Louis shut him up with a kiss. 

It was unexpected and quite rushed for Harry, who froze in his place as Louis leaned forward. He slowly let him melt into the kiss, a kiss that tasted a little bitter and like strawberry mixed with a flavor Harry had never tasted before. 

Louis reached a hand to his hips and slowly started to lean forward, pushing Harry back until he was lying on the sand and he was on top of him. The position sent pins and needles down to Harry’s lower belly, recalling how much he had loved to be dominated. 

“Why, why the fuck are you so freaking beautiful, Thing?” Louis asked, after what he put a soft kiss on his lips, tongue tracing his bottom, ripping a moan from Harry’s mouth. 

Louis was being soft in his touches, but at the same time, the way his fingertips skimmed Harry’s skin was bursting a flame inside his boy. Everything Louis was doing caused him chills, provoking soft and needy little sounds he never thought he could make. 

“Why aren’t you mine?” 

“I am yours,” Harry corrected him, as Louis slid his hand by his arm until it reached his hand, linking their fingers. “You’re not mine.” 

The revelation, which wasn’t new but it seemed like it was for Louis, left him lost. He didn’t keep kissing Harry and he regretted the loss of Louis’ lips against his. He felt a bursting pressure on his crotch, one that made him desperate to get more of Louis. 

“You’re right,” Louis whispered and leaned back, sitting cross-legged on the sea. He left Harry there, alone lying on the ground, aroused and desperate for more. “I belong to the human world. Or I am supposed to.” 

Harry closed his eyes, trying to control the mess of feelings that Louis had turned on with his touches and kisses. He didn’t reply because he didn’t know what to reply, the truth was stated and there wasn’t anything else to say. 

After a moment, he felt Louis snuggling next to him, wrapping his arms from behind. In an unconscious motion, Harry turned to one side and curled like a small baby, which Louis took as an open invitation to make of him his little spoon. 

“I’m lying on the beach,” Louis whispered in Harry’s ear as their bodies were glued together, “with a merman. At night. This is the craziest thing I ever did.” 

“I’m lying on the beach with a human,” Harry replied shyly. “It’s crazy, too.” 

Louis chuckled, pressing a soft kiss on the back of his neck. “I really, really, really love you, Haz. So much.” 

With those words echoing inside his mind, Harry fell asleep in Louis’ arms. 

 

**_X. The Purgatory_ **

“Tell me about the sea.”

Harry poked his head up, curious.

“The sea?”

“Yeah,” Louis nodded. “Your home.”

It was the first time Louis spoke openly about Harry’s origin. It made the merman smile, smile as wide as the horizon and as bright as a summer sunset. He told Louis about his home.

Louis understood his home was Harry.

 

//

 

Louis woke up and found himself lying in the middle of a beach without his merman. He rolled on the ground, trying to find Harry, but the merman was nowhere to be seen. He tried to stand up, but a sudden dizziness overcame him.

It took him a couple of minutes to recover himself and finally being able to stand up. As he gained composure and his vision didn’t blur anymore, he looked around in search of Harry.

What he saw, he wasn’t expecting.

Louis had never experienced such a big mess of emotions before in his entire life. Mark, his own father, was standing in front of him and as Louis met him, he tossed Harry on the ground, his hands tied up with a rope, hurting his delicate wrists. The mermaid fell on his knees when Mark pushed him with his feet, trying to prove his authority over the boy.

Harry’s face was wet with tears of despair, his bloodshot eyes looked at Louis with so much desolation and fear that the older boy wanted to grab his pistol and shoot his father right on the forehead for making him feel this way.

Yet he couldn’t.

“Louis.” He spoke with a harsh, firm tone that gave Louis chills. “I guess this filthy creature belongs to you. Finally, you caught something. Something great.”

He pulled the rope. Harry made a grimace, letting go of a broken whimper of pain. Louis tried hard to set his attention on Mark and not in the way that Harry’s small wrists were red and bruised.

“Please, let him go, dad,” Louis nodded, gulping down his fury. He stood straight, chin up and crossed arms against his chest, showing his cockiest attitude to the man. “Please, set him free.”

“I can’t, Louis,” Mark said, addressing Louis with his name, which was a good indicator. Harry sniffed and closed his eyes, terrified as a kitten. Louis ignored the stitch on his guts and looked at his stepfather. “I have been chasing after a merman for a while and you finally caught one. We’re going to be millionaires.” He pulled again on the rope, this time, harder, hurting Harry.

The merman sobbed as a reaction to the pain, he looked up to Mark and whispered, “Please, it hurts.”

Louis had never faced something so challenging as that situation. His whole body was trying to act without consent, trying to force him to run towards the boy and hit Mark into unconsciousness, leaving him breathless on the floor, lost to his own misery.

He had always felt Mark as his father, never thinking of him as an outsider.

Right now, he didn’t feel a thing for him.

“Tell him, creature. Tell him how you tried to kill me once,” Mark roared, staring at Harry with a ferocity that wasn’t necessary. Harry deserved to be treated kindly; he was almost as delicate as a porcelain doll. “Tell my son. Isn’t that true?”

Louis moved forward without thinking, desperate to relieve Harry’s pain. Lucky he, Mark was too focused on Harry to notice his reaction; so he quickly stepped back and came back to his staid position.

“I—,” Harry stuttered, tripping over his own tongue. “You hurt me first.”

“So what?” Mark exclaimed and slapped him on the face. “You can’t hit a human!”

That’s was the breaking point. Louis stepped forward and grabbed Mark’s arms with his hand, clutching it so bad that it hurt, but he wanted it to hurt.

“Stop,” Louis roared, stopping his father from hurting Harry. The merman looked down, giving up, his cheek getting redder where the man had slapped him. Mark turned to Louis, arching an eyebrow. “I’m sure he was defending himself. You have no right to catch him as a mere fish, dad.” He let go of his father’s hand. “Don’t lay a finger on Harry again.”

“Why are you so protective over this?” Mark asked, somber. “We can sell him to a museum, or perhaps a water park. We can make a lot of money. It’s a merman, Louis. Think about that.”

“You won’t ever sell him. He’s not an object, he has feelings. He has a human part,” Louis replied, trying to hide the feelings he had from Harry, but that was certainly impossible. “He’s mine.”

“He’s not. He’s a merman; he tried to he tried to kill me.”

“Let me check that. Harry.” The boy evidenced his submission to Louis when he looked up as soon as he heard his name spoken by him. His eyes were so full of tears that it was heartbreaking, but Louis smoothed his desperation with promises of upcoming nights of comfort and healing kisses. “Did you try to kill my father?”

“No, Louis, I—”

“He’s lying,” Mark interjected without giving Harry time to finish his defense.

“I’m speaking to Harry, father, shut up,” Louis warned him, throwing Mark a threatening glance. The man shuddered and shut up, slightly offended. “His accusation is false then, Harry?”

“Yes,” Harry nodded.

Louis hoped his relief wasn’t notable on his face as he looked up at Mark. “You won’t have him. I won’t let you.”

Mark looked as if he had been punched in the face with a chair.

“If not?”

“I’ll tell mum. You won’t see the girls, never again.”

“You won’t do that,” Mark said, impressed by the threat. “You won’t leave your sisters without his father.”

“I won’t,” Louis said, curt. “They won’t want to see you after I told you how you tried to hurt an innocent life just for money.”

Mark grunted when he received the affirmation, defeated. Louis wasn’t lying. None of his sisters were cruel enough to give a life away for money. Louis was glad they have learned from Jay and not from Mark because Jay was a real woman.

He threw a last dreadful glance at Harry before untying his rope and setting him free. Harry collapsed on the floor, shattered. He didn’t make an attempt to stand up or run to Louis, he just lay on the floor as the two men around him started at each other.

“We need the money, Louis,” Mark warned him, cautious. “Let have me this creature and everything will be fine.”

“Never. I will figure how to get the money, but you won’t touch Harry.”

“Even if you have to keep swimming, which you don’t like?”

“Yes. I’d do everything for my family, but I’d do even more for Harry.”

Mark clenched his jaw as he nodded, eyes glued to a floor he wasn’t seeing. Louis saw his muscles getting tense, as he was, Mark was trying hard to remain calm and avoid losing his rationality to his feelings.

“Good luck then, son.”

“Thanks,” Louis said, trying to sound a little friendlier.

“Take care of your trash,” Mark said before walking away towards his car, whenever he had it parked.

Although he desperately needed to do it, Louis waited until Mark was gone to kneel down and wrap Harry in his arms, who quickly climbed into his lap and held onto him and started crying even harder.

Louis held him, hoping his loud heartbeats could work as a soft reassurance for his boy. Behind his touch, Harry’s body quivering with the sobs he wasn’t trying to control. He rocked him on his lap, whispering words that made no sense but were like a feather caressing his heart.

“I didn’t do it, Lou, I swear,” Harry hiccuped, burying his face on the crook of Louis’ neck, recovering his strength to talk.

“I know, Haz. I believe you,” Louis comforted him, pressing a kiss to his temple. “I love you. I love you so much, baby boy. I’m here, okay? Always.”

“I— Why?” Harry whispered wretchedly. His hands were shaking as he held Louis’, he tightened his grip, anchoring him. “Why they want to sell me?” He leaned back; his blotchy eyes looked at Louis purely. “I— I’m not.” Harry broke into tears again.

“Hey, sweet boy, I know,” Louis nodded and reached for his hands. He untied his wrists and threw the rope to one side, then kissed his hurt wrist better. Harry grimaced at the touch, skin too sensitive, but he smiled sweetly at Louis. “You’re not an object to sell. You’re the most amazing creature I ever knew. Mark is a fucking piece of scum, pardon my French.”

“Louis,” Harry cried, the shattered pieces of his heart were visible for Louis; he wanted to pick them up and melt them together again. “Please. Don’t leave me. I don’t want to keep going without you.”

“Baby.” Louis shushed him, closing his eyes to hold back the tears. “My pretty Thing. I would never leave you. I rather be dead than leave you alone.”

“But—.” He hiccuped, his crushing feelings didn’t give him strength enough to keep talking. Louis felt a damp spot on his shirt where Harry had lain his head, but he didn’t really care. “You’re a human.”

“Harry. I love you,” Louis said those words as a prayer, a prayer to a love they didn’t know how to control. Harry shuddered and Louis kept with his litanies, whispering in Harry’s ear, speaking those three words over and over again.

If words failed them to explain their feelings, they didn’t care. The feel of each other lips was enough; the way Louis wrapped his arms around Harry and kissed his sadness away was enough. Nothing mattered, really, because they were together, and Louis was positive that fate, destiny, God, or whatever it was out there had brought Harry to his life.

 

**_XI. The Fulfillment_ **

Louis couldn’t understand about Harry. His heart fell in love before he even knew what he was. Harry was an enigma; he was made of million pieces that didn’t seem to fit together.

“It hurts. This love,” Harry whispered, waking Louis up from his daydreams, resting his palm in the place where Louis’ heart was beating. “This love hurts, but I love this pain so much. I’m addicted to it. I will always love you, Louis,” Harry whispered shyly. “Always. You’ll be my first, my last and my only.”

Louis felt Harry’s words as an accepted defeat, promising Louis eternal love, but knowing theirs was an impossible love.

He hated the feeling.

“Harry, don’t say that. Don’t talk as if… as if this was impossible, because is not.”

Harry shivered, closing his eyes and breathing into Louis. The older boy heard the word none of them spoke, leaving him breathless for a moment. He couldn’t face reality, it was too painful for his loved up heart.

Harry was the one who spoke the truth.

“It is.”

Reality knocked Louis like the strongest stick.

“Harry,” Louis gasped, bringing him closer to him, if that was even possible. “No. No. I love you, this isn’t impossible.”

Louis lost count of the ‘I love you’s he whispered in Harry’s ears as his lovely merman broke into silent sobs.

“Don’t cry, little one. Please.”

“I love you,” Harry repeated, hiccuping. “I forgive you.”

“Forgive me?” Louis repeated, frowning as he leaned back to look into his eyes. Harry’s eyes were puffy and filled with sad tears, tears Louis wanted to kiss away.

“Forgive you if you want to choose your life.”

“What life?”

He was so tired of this, his training, his father and everything that gave him all kinds of things he didn’t need. He needed this, the warm arms of his merman holding around his waist and pulling him into a tight embrace. He needed this, the smell of Harry draping him completely.

Without expecting it, the tears started to wet Louis’ cheeks, the only way his soul found to fight against his anxiety.

“Lou?” Harry whispered in his ear as he hugged him close, both of them lying inside their tent.

Louis cried on his chest, whispering apologies repeatedly. The smell of Harry, though, could smooth his troublesome mind a little, leaving him place to stop his tears.

“I’m so sorry, Thing,” Louis said in a choked voice, leaning back. He looked into Harry’s eyes, piercing eyes offering nothing but love for him. “I’m so sorry.”

The words were caught on Louis’ throat, unable to be spoken. For a brief moment, he thought about his life without Harry. A happy one full of luxury and wellness, a life where he owned the whole damn world.

Louis Tomlinson, the swimmer.

As he thought about his life, he knew he had made a decision. He knew he wasn’t going back. He didn’t want that life, not now, not ever. He wanted freedom, happiness; he wanted to be this boy to be this eternity.

He was in love with Harry.

He loved this creature. He loved Harry with everything he was. He couldn’t function without him because Harry was the fuel that give him the energy to live. The feelings distressed him, making him break into unexpected sobs as he thought about him.

Harry made him feel safe, safer as he never felt before. Harry was his home, and the mere idea of losing him was deadly scary for him.

He spoke those feelings with words that didn’t seem to be enough. “I love you, Harry. So much.”

“I love you, too,” Harry said back. He still had his eyes closed when Louis leaned back, lips parted as Louis’ saliva made them glossy. 

“I want to live with you for the rest of my life. My eternity, if so,” Louis babbled out, voice choked with his tears. They were hugging as if was the last day of their lives, together, holding hands. “Harry, my lovely Thing.”

He was a free spirit, a free bird.

“Lou. I… I don’t want to— give up on us,” Harry confessed, teary.

“The world gave up on us already, Harry,” he said, crushed. “I can’t do anything against that.”

“That means…?”

“Make me the water, Haz,” Louis interrupted him, squeezing Harry’s torso with his arms. If the world didn’t leave him a place to be happy, then he should build his own little world for Harry to live in it.

“What?” Harry gasped, pushing Louis back. The shock on his face was evident; he hadn’t expected Louis to actually want this. Louis saw this; he read the surprise in Harry’s eyes so he kissed his doubts away.

“I have nothing without you,” Louis continued, giving him no time to protest. “I have absolutely nothing and you know it, Harry, because you’re everything that gives my life a value. Do you expect me to waste my life pretending to be someone I’m clearly not? No, Harry. So please, take me with you,” Louis proposed. He couldn’t imagine what being the water meant, but he was beyond caring.

“Does this water thing scare me? Yes, like shit, but if this means being with you… I want it.”

Water.

The idea was as terrifying as intriguing.

He, Louis, who had amazing skills for swimming, who had a promising future. He had the world.

Except he didn’t.

His world was Harry, and he couldn’t be with him as long as he remained a prince. A human.

It was just water.

Light, cold, free water running down the river.

It was just water caressing every inch of Harry.

It was part of Harry. Louis desperately wanted to be part of him.

“I love you, Harry. This doesn’t scare me. I want you.”

The seawater reached his waist, draping them completely, turning Harry’s legs into a long, glistening mermaid tail.

Harry kissed those words from his mouth, desperate. “I want you, too. Are you scared?”

Louis closed his eyes, feeling the warmth of Harry’s body draping him, his arms around his waist held him close as the water started to cover them. He felt the soft caresses of the seawater, the coldness of the blue immensity.

“No. Not as long as I’m with you,” he whispered, meaning his world. “Would you be with me?”

“Yes,” Harry nodded, secure. “For the rest of the eternity.”

“Sign to me, Haz. Will you?”

“Yes,” Harry squeezed his body, melting into it. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

With one last quiet lullaby, the endless blue of the sea water swallowed Louis forever.

 

 

 _✧_

_Count to ten._

_One, two, three…_

_Count to ten, you need to hold on there._

_Four, five, six…_

_Count to ten before opening your eyes, you won’t be ready for your new body._

_Seven, eight, nine…_

_Count to ten._

_Ten._

_Goodbye, Louis. Welcome to the sea._

_✧_   


End file.
